Motherwell 'ambitious' but not thinking about European spot next summer

Jens Berthel Askou shot down claims that Motherwell are targeting a European place next season but said they are ambitious.

A 3-0 win over William Hill Scottish Premiership basement boys Livingston on Saturday stretched Motherwell’s unbeaten league run to eight games, consolidating third place in the table.

Goals from Elliot Watt and Emmanuel Longelo, either side of an Apostolos Stamatelopoulos penalty left Askou purring, but he says nobody is getting carried away.

Askou said: “When you win as much as we do and have the amount of points we have now, for a club of our size, combined with the way we have performed, I think it’s not a big surprise to me that everyone feels lifted, inspired and proud about that.

“That’s next season, isn’t it it? If you finish between the top six that’s the summer break and then you start qualifying for Europe, so that’s nothing for us right now.

“I think I understand the question, but it’s irrelevant for us. What we are thinking about is how can we improve, make this team as good as possible, so we can finish as high as possible in the league.

“We all have ambitions about getting as far as possible. If we are good enough, if we can keep doing what we’re doing and keep improving, as we have, then I’m pretty confident that we will keep being competitive in this league and we can see how far it can take us.

“We are ambitious, I think we have shown that and we are not just here to play half a season, think we’re world champions, we’re fantastic and can party all Christmas.

“We’re here to improve and get better. Eventually we have big dreams for this club, we will see, and hopefully it will take us to Europe at some point, but that’s not now.”

Livingston boss David Martindale says their next eight Premiership games could be crucial to their chances of staying in the Premiership, starting at home to Dundee on Saturday.

Martindale said: “The games are getting bigger by the week and they’re running out. December is going to be a really big month for us, as a group. We need to get to January with as many points as we can physically get and then strengthen, because we need players in the building.

“After 15 games and where we are, points-wise, I think it’s evident that we need to bring boys in.

“There’s still a lot there for you. If you win the game it’s a different story. I think in the main the performances have been there, but it’s fine margins and you get punished for it at this level.

“We need to win the game next week, there’s no doubt about that. The next run of games we’re on, we have a lot of teams in and around us, at home. I think there are eight games in six weeks, including the Scottish Cup, so there is a lot to play for.”