Steven Hammell urges Motherwell to take responsibility on pitch against Rangers

Motherwell manager Steven Hammell has urged his players to take responsibility on the pitch and put their unlikely collapse against Kilmarnock behind them when they take on Rangers at Ibrox.

Hammell went through the positives of their performance against Killie on Friday with his players after the initial shock of suddenly losing a two-goal lead against 10 men.

But he also told his players they need to start getting over the line in matches.

Speaking about Friday’s game, Hammell said: “I have watched it back a few times. When you speak after the game, that’s not the time to say ‘we did well with this and that’. The emotion is still there, it’s a game we should have won.

“But after the game we sat in here till late and looked at it back. Everything that we worked on, to the best part, we did it and did it well. We scored a couple of good goals, we could have and should have scored more.

“Everything we are looking for in terms of stats, possession and territory, creation, corners, we were strong. It was just being clinical in both boxes that has cost us again.

“We have a two-and-a-half-minute spell within that game that didn’t go our way and it cost us two points.

“You can speak about formations and game plans and style and everything else, but there’s no getting away from the fact, the position we found ourselves in, the way we were playing, the opposition going to 10 men, regardless of any of these things, we should be winning that game.

“The players on the pitch need to take ownership of that, take responsibility for not getting three points.

“When we get into that position it’s something we need to work on for sure but they need to take responsibility and be professional enough, after the good work they have done, to get over the line.

“We need to put the game at the weekend to bed now and take as many positives as we can and be as prepared as we can be. We will go there (Ibrox) and try to win the game, that will never change.”

Hammell was struggling to put out a back four last week with four first-team defenders injured and others playing through the pain barrier.

Paul McGinn, who scored an own goal in the 2-2 draw against Killie, was rushed back from a knee injury to play out of position at centre-back.

“Numbers are low, not just in defence,” said Hammell, who remains without forwards Louis Moult and Joe Efford. “Paul has trained for a very, very short time, he has not done as much prep but he came in and – for the best part – did very, very well.

“That is consistent throughout the squad in terms of numbers. Even late in the game, you look at trends just now and top teams especially are getting an impact 60-70 minutes in at the top end of the pitch.

“It was something for the Kilmarnock game we planned for. We wanted to ideally win the game and win it quickly because we don’t have that kind of impact in terms of a striker we can bring on and really commit and give us a different dimension.

“We are happy with the players we have got but we have a couple of big players missing and hopefully we will have them back as soon as possible plus potentially adding a couple in January.

“It’s a constant process. I was on a Zoom call late on Christmas Eve, I was on a Zoom call until about half nine on Boxing Day. It’s a landscape that changes every day. We need to be ready if anything drops.”