Motherwell: Stephen Robinson hails heroic Trevor Carson after Coleraine win
- Published
Trevor Carson made a hat-trick of penalty saves as Motherwell advanced through to the Europa League third qualifying round
Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson praised goalkeeper Trevor Carson for his penalty heroics in their Europa League shootout win over Coleraine.
The Northern Ireland international kept out three spot-kicks as the Scottish Premiership side advanced through to the third qualifying round.
Carson, 32, has recovered from a long-term ankle injury and deep vein thrombosis.
"He was magnificent," Robinson told Motherwell's Twitter account, external.
"After the journey he's been on and what he's been through - his character and his resilience. He was quality tonight with the three penalty saves."
Ten-man Motherwell let a two-goal lead slip as Ben Doherty's second-half double from the penalty spot forced extra-time.
Though Robinson was unhappy with his side's collapse, after goals from Callum Lang and Tony Watt, he was also disappointed with the quality of the pitch at The Showgrounds.
"It doesn't show Northern Irish football in a good light," he said.
"I think the football club deserve better than this, Oran [Kearney] deserves better than this and the board deserve better than this."
"It's an unbelievably difficult place to come through. We had to dig in, we had to be very resilient.
"The game should have been out of sight at 2-0, we said don't give them anything to cling to and we did.
"From our point of view it was a tricky tie, it was a banana skin and had we got beaten there would have been plenty made of it but we didn't, we showed character and we're through to the next round."
Allan Campbell is now a doubt for Motherwell's tie with Aberdeen on Sunday, with the midfielder substituted off before extra-time.
"For Allan to come off it's not good," said Robinson.
"He didn't know whether it was a kick or a pull - I'll be praying for a kick because the wee man will get through that.
"We need to assess it, it's still early, but he certainly wouldn't have come off the pitch if he wasn't injured."