SOMETIMES, Liam Kelly admits, you are simply beaten by the better team. That was certainly the case on Wednesday night when Motherwell were seen off by Celtic with a fair bit to spare.
At other times though, as has been the main theme since Steven Hammell took charge of the Fir Park club, you don’t get the points that your performances deserve.
That is why the Motherwell keeper isn’t getting too downbeat despite a concerning run of results of late, and why he feels the players are steadfastly behind the style of play that Hammell is attempting to implement.
Kelly wholeheartedly believes in the path that his new manager has set the team on, and that success will only come from committing to it, not ripping up his gameplan.
“You can’t separate results and performance,” Kelly said. “If we get good performances I think we will get the results.
“Saturday [against Aberdeen at Fir Park] is a massive game now. Every game is massive. It will be difficult. We had a good game up there and won 3-2. We are hoping to give our fans something to be happy about because there hasn’t been too much to smile about.
“But the performances have been good. It is still really early days for the manager who is getting his message across. We are still positive in the dressing room. We will pick the bones out of Wednesday’s game and then prepare for Aberdeen. “He has had a positive reaction from the group. Every team we have ran really close, albeit that Celtic were a level above. Anyone who has been at our games will know how much we have been in games.
“We were pushing right to the end, even against Rangers. Saturday is a chance to see where we are at, but it won’t be easy. “I don’t think there is any point in changing the way we play. If we believe that is the best way of getting a result then we don’t want to change it. We as a group believe that the way the manager wants us to play will give us the best opportunity to win games.
“We will approach Saturday in the same way and we will try and get after Aberdeen. There is still a feel-good factor about the place and we are looking forward to Saturday.”
For all that the Motherwell supporters still also seem to be willing to grant club legend Hammell grace for now, Kelly also admits that another common thread of their play at the moment – a propensity for losing criminally soft goals – was still evident in Wednesday’s game. And that has to change fast.
“It was really disappointing,” he said.
“We were beaten by the better team which was clearly there for everyone to see. We gave it a good go but we lost terrible goals at terrible times.
“We got them on a day when they played really well and they are difficult to stop when they play like that. We can still get better but they deserved to win. “It seems to be a wee theme that we are going through of losing poor goals at poor times. Against Rangers, the first 15 minutes of the second-half, which is an important time in the game, we done the same. We need to keep working on the training ground and try to get better.”
