Steven Hammell hails Motherwell resilience following Fir Park flooding

Motherwell manager Steven Hammell felt areas of Fir Park looked like a “sinking ship” at times over the past two weeks.

But he is confident both the stadium and his team are ready to successfully relaunch their season when they host Kilmarnock on Friday night.

Motherwell’s return to cinch Premiership action following the World Cup break was delayed after the cold weather led to frozen and burst pipes and flooding in all parts of the ground and scuppered the visit of St Mirren.

Hammell and his squad have had to be creative after the weather also hit their training ground and led to their gym being flooded.

But he has sensed the resilience of the squad in dealing with the situation as they bid to get their first three points at Fir Park since August following a six-week interval without matches and a major clean-up operation.

“The safety guy (Robert Park) looked as if he was on a sinking ship with some of the videos that were coming out,” Hammell said. “I have never seen anything like it.

“We have been very restricted to what we can do about the stadium, but the amount of work the guys have put in this week has been incredible.

“The togetherness and atmosphere in and about the group is good. Things like that test you a little bit and you just have to maximise what you have got.

“The last few weeks have been good in that sense in terms of getting the squad together and really building on a positive culture and environment.

“We used the weekend as well as we could with the conditions and the ability for finding training pitches. We have done the best we can with the week we have had.”

Hammell, who will make late decisions on several fitness doubts, added: “The home form in the first part of the season wasn’t what we wanted it to be.

“I think some of the performances were at a good level. That wasn’t really matched up with the total points gathered, but the games are difficult. We need the fans to continue to get behind us at home and we’ll fix that.”

Motherwell confirmed their first January signing earlier this week when they announced the arrival of former Sligo Rovers centre-back Shane Blaney.

“He brings good competition straight away for a position we’re quite short in at the moment,” Hammell said. “He’s been in working with us, is looking good and as soon as January comes he’ll be in.

“We’re not in a position where we can flood the place and bring four, five or six people in.

“The January window is very difficult. We are looking to do some business still, but it’s tough to find someone who fits in with the way we want to play, who also fits in with the financial restrictions we are working with.

“It’s a constant process and hopefully between now and the end of January we will have another couple in.”