Jens Berthel Askou working to ensure Motherwell players stay ‘humbly hungry’

Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou has been working hard to ensure his players stay “humbly hungry” as they bid to complete a capital double.

The Steelmen produced a dominant 2-0 win over Hibernian on Tuesday, enjoying 70 per cent possession and a 94 per cent success rate in about 800 passes.

Hibs were already two goals down when Grant Hanley was sent off but Askou stressed that the numerical advantage had a major bearing on the game.

And he will remain wary of William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts given Motherwell ultimately had to hold on for a point despite going three goals up at Tynecastle earlier this season.

Looking back to midweek, the Dane said: “We all have that feeling that it felt a little bit, at some times, easy, but that was also due to the fact that we were 2-0 up with a man extra on the pitch.

“So it made some of the phases of the game a lot easier, some others a little bit more tricky and difficult. And that probably gives that feeling that we were really, really dominant.

“So we have to take that into consideration and that’s been the main message to the players, don’t expect things to come easy, don’t expect us to just be on top and flying now.

“We need to stay hungry – humbly hungry, not greedy – to stay on the right side of that thin line where you get overconfident because things are going well.

“And when we play Hearts on Saturday, I hope that we have learned the lesson from the last time we met them, that it is a team you can never rule out, no matter how dark and difficult it looks for them.”

Well have taken 13 points from five games while Hearts have experienced their first dip in form under Derek McInnes, losing at Aberdeen last weekend to make it one win from four matches. Askou is not reading anything into that first league defeat.

“Look, we all follow football and have been involved in football for many, many years and you see even the best teams in the world, they struggle winning every game,” he said.

“So I’m not surprised that Hearts eventually lost a football game. And I don’t think it will ruin their confidence or their flow or the way they approach the game.

“I think they’re extremely excited to come here and show that they can deal with our play better than they did from the beginning last time and really make it a challenging game for us to play.

“Their away section is sold out, which means that we have a real opportunity to create a scene that could be historic from numbers against teams outside the Old Firm, which is a great opportunity for us as a club and for the supporters.

“It will set the scene for an extremely intensive game between two sides who have a lot of confidence.”