Dan Casey determined to make most of Motherwell reputation as comeback kings in top-six bid

Motherwell are looking to take their status of comeback specialists to a new level by sneaking into the Premiership top six at the perfect moment.

Stuart Kettlewell’s side have earned 21 of their 36 points from losing positions and their late surge for a top-half finish has come after three wins in five matches – the same total they achieved in the previous 23 league games.

After a bright start to the campaign which had them in second place in mid-September, Kettlewell’s side slipped out of the top half on November 1 and have never returned.

They spent Christmas in the bottom two after failing to win in 15 league matches but they are currently eighth and will edge into sixth if they beat Hibernian at Fir Park on Saturday and Dundee lose at Aberdeen.

Even then those two results would leave Motherwell needing to leave it later than ever before to seal a top-six spot following the postponement of Dundee’s game with Rangers until next Wednesday.

Defender Dan Casey said: “We don’t stop playing until the final whistle and we have shown that this year. We have got a lot of late goals.

“I think we are quite a fit team so that’s probably helped us as well to keep going to the end.

“But it is a problem where we need to start quicker. We have done quite well when we have been in the lead, it’s just getting that lead. Hopefully we can start fast at the weekend and see how it goes.”

Motherwell’s latest fightback came after being two goals down at Dens Park with 79 minutes on the clock last Saturday.

Needing a win to keep their top-six hopes alive, debutant Moses Ebiye netted in stoppage time to make it 3-2. Well have scored 22 of their 45 league goals in the last 20 minutes of matches.

Irishman Casey said: “It was tough for us because we have put ourselves in a position all year where sometimes we have got in that and been able to get ourselves out of it.

“Obviously being 2-0 down, nobody put their head down and we all kept believing that if we get one, we’d get the ball back and go again.

“The manager has driven that into us to never give up and keep going. I think we have shown that all year.

“It would be nice if we got a lead from the start, to be honest, but we are working on that.”