Motherwell

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Motherwell's Danish manager Jens Berthel Askou expressed his delight for Scotland despite his country being denied automatic World Cup qualification by Steve Clarke's side.

Askou attended Hampden on Tuesday with assistant coach Max Rogers and some members of the Fir Park club's board.

The former Norwich defender watched an incredible occasion unfold as the Scots came out on top in an astonishing finale to win 4-2 in a group decider.

"It was a great experience to feel the enthusiasm and the joy in the stadium," the Well boss said.

"I'm really happy on Scotland's behalf, and everyone here who is passionate about the national team.

"I think there's a lot of people who are that, so I'm really happy for you that you qualified."

Askou says his primary focus is on Motherwell but believes it is important his players dream of being able to represent their nation at the World Cup.

Elliot Watt has been one of the standout midfielders in the Scottish Premiership this season and has represented Scotland at youth level.

So too has on-loan Celtic defender Stephen Welsh, while Stephen O'Donnell and Paul McGinn have won senior caps.

And Elijah Just is a regular for New Zealand, who will join Scotland at next summer's finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

"I think all players, staff as well, dream of getting to the next level," Askou added.

"And for the players, obviously the World Cup is the biggest tournament you can participate in, so it's a massive thing for people to strive for.

"I hope many of them get that opportunity. Eli has a good chance. We also have some of the Australian boys who might have an opportunity.

"So obviously with the World Cup coming up, the dream is right there for them to see, and especially the Scottish guys."

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Manager Jens Berthel Askou has been speaking to the media before his Motherwell side travel to face Kilmarnock in the Premiership on Saturday.

Here are the key lines:

• The Dane attended Hampden on Wednesday with assistant coach Max Rogers and some members of the Motherwell board.

• Despite his country suffering defeat on an incredible occasion, he says he is "really happy" for Scotland and the match was a "great experience to feel the enthusiasm and joy".

• On whether Scotland's qualification will inspire his Scottish players: "Possibly, but our main focus is here. Hopefully some will eventually be good enough to play for their country. Some of them are already."

• "All players and staff dream of getting to the next level," Askou adds. "Hopefully some of them will have the opportunity [to go to the World Cup]. The dream is there for them to see."

• Askou confirms Motherwell played a behind-closed-doors friendly last Wednesday: "It was a really good game for us and for the guys who haven't played many minutes."

• With a hectic schedule on the way, Askou says "we will see the benefit of us using the [international] breaks well" going forward.

• Motherwell's international players have all arrived back fit and well, but New Zealand winger Elijah Just was given Thursday off because of jetlag.

• Askou says Stephen O'Donnell will hopefully return to full training on Friday, but Andy Halliday is a doubt for the trip to Rugby Park.

• On Kilmarnock, who are on a five-game losing run, the Dane says he is still expecting to face a "dangerous" side who are "really good in moments of games".

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• Although Kilmarnock have only lost one of their past seven league meetings with Motherwell (W2 D4), they are winless in the latest two (D1 L1).

• Motherwell are winless in six away league games at Kilmarnock (D2 L4) since a 1-0 victory in February 2021 under Graham Alexander.

• Kilmarnock have lost five in a row - the longest ongoing losing streak by any side in this season's top flight. It's Killie's longest in the division since February 2021 (eight in a row).

• Motherwell have lost just two of their 11 Scottish Premiership matches this season (W3 D6), their fewest amount of defeats at this stage of a top-flight season since 2009-10 (P11 W4 D6 L1).

• Motherwell have dropped 12 points from winning positions this season, three more than any other team. The Steelmen have opened the scoring in five league matches, going on to win just two (D2 L1).

We asked for your views on what one thing you would change at Motherwell.

Here's what some of you said:

James: Motherwell are playing unbelievable football with no end product. A striker who could score 20 goals or more must be a top priority. A top-six finish would be guaranteed.

George: A willingness to shoot. We have scored a couple of cracking goals this season from outside the box, but they are standouts simply because they are rarities. Our style is wonderful to watch, but we seem to be too focused on always passing into the six-yard box and not taking responsibility for shooting.

Chris: A lot to be excited about, but for me we lack a presence up front with Apostolos Stamatelopoulos on his own. We either need to change formation and pair him with someone, or replace him with someone else.

Callum: It would be nice if Jens Berthel Askou would start to get some more of the academy boys into the team. They've had a smattering of minutes this season and none have made an appearance since the cup game against St Johnstone.

George: Mixed feelings on the possession style of football. It is often quite cumbersome and unproductive but on some occasions absolutely brilliant. What it lacks ultimately however is a genuine penalty-box striker. If we had one our points total would be more in keeping with the domination we have in most matches.

Stephen: To watch the football we play this season is very pleasing on the eye. We pass the ball around brilliantly and have outplayed most teams in the league but where we are lacking is in front of goal. I'm not convinced with our strikers, they never seem to be in the right place to put the ball in the net. If we had a proven goalscorer we'd certainly have more points. Also goalkeeper wise we could do better. Calum Ward has made too many costly mistakes already.

Jens Berthel Askou has already proved a breath of fresh air at Fir Park.

Fans have bought into the Dane's attractive, possession-based style of play and Motherwell currently occupy sixth place in the Premiership.

The League Cup semi-final loss to St Mirren was a painful blow, but optimism remains over the club's progress under the new head coach.

The international break provides the chance to pause for breath and reflect after a frenetic few months at Fir Park.

So, if you could change one thing about Well's season so far, what would it be?

Let us know here.

Jane Lewis
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

"Think fast, play fast, move fast." It sounds like a slogan from a sports brand.

But this wasn't thrashed out by PR executives hoping to inspire the sale of their overpriced clothing range.

The quote comes from Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou after his side's latest Scottish Premiership draw.

He sees quick thinking as a potential weapon and it certainly worked on Sunday against Aberdeen. A promptly-taken corner almost caught out scorer Elijah Just never mind the Aberdeen defence.

Askou said the move didn't come from the training ground, but the thought process is something he has been working on with his players. "Fast thinking" is his message.

With 11 games played, Motherwell are a third of the way to the split. They occupy sixth place but with 15 points, they're only three points off third.

Their league record of three wins, six draws and two defeats is respectable. And they've been picking up plenty of plaudits for playing style.

However, given their intensity and frequent superior possession, Askou might be frustrated at some of those draws.

At St Mirren in August Motherwell had 66.5% possession, while at home to Kilmarnock later that month it was 73.6%, and away to Dundee it was 65.6%. Yet in all those games they managed just one shot more on target than their opponents.

It was a similar story against Aberdeen at the weekend. Motherwell had far more of the ball but three shots on target compared to the Dons' two.

Of course coming from behind to take a point gives things a different complexion.

But Askou will be hoping for more in front of goal from his side, and the international break offers the opportunity to work on that sharpness.

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Former Motherwell left-back Jim Paterson has replaced Richard Foster as the club's head of academy coaching.

Motherwell say ex-Rangers and Aberdeen defender Foster, who joined the club in March 2023, has left to "explore opportunities elsewhere".

Paterson, who played over 100 games for Motherwell as a player after making his debut in 2004, says "it feels like I'm coming home".

"Fir Park is a special place to me and I feel proud to have been trusted with this key role at the football club," the 46-year-old added.

"Motherwell has a reputation for producing our own talent. It's an exciting time to be working here too.

"The manager has been implementing a brand new style of football with the first team and it's an opportunity to learn that approach.

"The young players can develop so much using this style and I look forward to working with all of them."

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

After four-and-a-half years as the head of women's and girls' football at Motherwell, Paul Brownlie is taking his final bow.

For those unfamiliar with our women's team, Brownlie has brought on both our girls' academy and women's first team leaps and bounds.

From struggling to stay afloat in SWPL1 to two cup semi-finals at Hampden, the 48-year-old has transformed the Women of Steel since taking the reins in 2021.

We also achieved our first top-six finish in history thanks to Brownlie last season and under his guidance more Motherwell players are progressing to Scotland youth caps.

I am very sad to see him go. Having interviewed him previously, he is a gentleman and one of the most down-to-earth coaches I've spoken with.

Brownlie's efforts at Motherwell are appreciated and he can leave the club with head held high.

Tyrone Smith
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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Elijah Just is hopeful Motherwell will discover a cutting edge and says putting the ball in the net is the "little back lacking" for the Steelmen.

New Zealand winger Just scored the equaliser on Sunday as Jens Berthel Askou's side drew 1-1 with Aberdeen at Pittodrie in the Scottish Premiership.

Not for the first time time this season, Motherwell dominated for large spells and arguably failed to get the reward their good play merited.

"We want to win every game and we believe the way we are playing is going to give us the best chance," Just said.

"There is still a little bit lacking but that is the most difficult part of football, scoring the goals. We will continue to work and hopefully we will improve and score more goals.

"We do believe that we just need to keep working and it will come."

A lot of eyes were on Motherwell and how they would react to their sobering 4-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final defeat by St Mirren at Hampden the week before.

"It was a disappointing result last week," Just said. "We had a lot of fans go and we don't like to lose and definitely not in the way we did, so it was important that we showed up [against Aberdeen] and showed our mentality."

The point at Pittodrie means Motherwell are sixth in the table going in to the international break.

"The league table doesn't lie," Just said. "In the middle is probably how we feel about our performances.

"We have played well in patches, a lot of control over a lot of games but we haven't quite been able to get over the line so at the moment we are still pushing, we want to move up the table, it is a long season so there is plenty of time."

We asked for your views on Motherwell's 1-1 draw against Aberdeen on Sunday.

Here's what some of you said:

Fraser: Very disappointing result only emphasised by Hibs beating St Mirren 3-0 the Saturday after the semi. We should have done this. There was a lack of passion and energy in front of a huge Motherwell support. Only Callum Hendry and Callum Slattery, when they came on, showed what we needed to win a game. Learn from this, sort the wrongs and play for the badge.

Kevin: Hopefully the January window can help the manager find the missing links that are costing us a fantastic season. Playing beautiful football without ever really looking like scoring is hard to stomach.

Watch highlights from Sunday's Scottish Premiership draw between Aberdeen and Motherwell.

Available to UK users only.

Motherwell bounced back from their Premier Sports Cup Hampden disappointment to salvage a deserved draw against Aberdeen to make it three unbeaten in the Scottish Premiership.

Read the full match report here.

Have your say here.

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Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou tells BBC Scotland: "It was probably the performance of the three [games against Aberdeen] where we were most dominant, in most control, throughout the game.

"We lacked a little bit of sharpness to convert the dominance into open, clear-cut chances, and that's the most disappointing thing because the performance was really solid.

"Many things to be happy about but we'll have to keep building and progressing our attacking game, so we win games like this.

"We had a feeling we could easily come back, because we had a lot of momentum throughout the game. There wasn't long spells where we lost control. We probably got a little over-confident, being too clever or too smart, losing the balance behind the ball.

"We decided to keep going and try to put some fresh players on the pitch, to keep driving the game forward. I have to praise the guys for staying brave and popping the ball around their pressure."

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Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou steered away from a group video analysis of their defeat by St Mirren as he focused on helping his players shaking off their Hampden heartache.

Askou had only experienced two defeats in Scotland, each by one goal, before suffering a 4-1 loss to St Mirren in the League Cup semi-finals.

And he is determined to ensure Well bounce back quickly from the knockout blow when they take on Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.

The Dane said: "Traditionally there's a lot of expectations that, when you don't perform how you're expected to or how you want to, there's a perception that you have to be filled with shame, anger, disappointment, frustration.

"And some people just cling on to these emotions, some have more difficulty in letting these emotions go than others.

"I thought it was important on Monday to tell them that it's OK to spend the day getting it out of the system.

"And then there will always be some players and hopefully staff members who are better at trying to make room for more constructive emotions going forward.

"They have to lead the way and allow room for a joke and a smile, praise to a team-mate who does something good in training, to try and lift the mood and the spirit because you have to move on.

"If you carry these these emotions with you for too long then there's a risk it affects the quality and the productiveness of the next couple of days and we don't have time to waste in training sessions.

"I didn't show any clips from the game – we used that more individually in terms of how can we develop and then we used it as a lead-in to training the next couple of days.

"It's not like we haven't dealt with the game and the experience we had, but we did it in a little different way. We didn't rip into something that we were trying to heal."

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Aberdeen remain without Alfie Dorrington, Ante Palaversa and Sivert Heltne Nilsen along with long-term absentee Kristers Tobers (knee).

Motherwell remain without Stephen O'Donnell (hamstring) while Aston Oxborough has been ruled out until January with a fractured hand.

Long-term absentees Sam Nicholson, Filip Stuparevic (both knee), Eseosa Sule, Jordan McGhee (both thigh) and Zach Robinson (Achilles) remain out.

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Jens Berthel Askou has tried to lift the mood at Motherwell this week by steering clear of group video analysis after the League Cup semi-final trouncing by St Mirren.

Having lost 4-1 at Hampden, Berthel wants to get his side to get back on track when they visit Aberdeen in the Premiership on Sunday.

"Traditionally there's a lot of expectations that when you don't perform how you're expected to or how you want to, there's a perception that you have to be filled with shame, anger, disappointment and frustration," said the Motherwell boss.

"Some people just cling on to these emotions, some have more difficulty in letting these emotions go than others.

"I thought it was important on Monday to tell them that it's okay to spend the day getting it out of their system.

"Then there will always be some players and hopefully staff members who are better at trying to make room for more constructive emotions going forward.

"They have to lead the way and allow room for a joke and a smile, praise to a team-mate who does something good in training, to try and lift the mood and the spirit because you have to move on.

"If you carry these emotions with you for too long then there's a risk it affects the quality and the productiveness of the next couple of days and we don't have time to waste in training sessions.

"I didn't show any clips from the game – we used that more individually in terms of how can we develop and then we used it as a lead-in to training the next couple of days.

"It's not like we haven't dealt with the game and the experience we had, but we did it in a little different way. We didn't rip into something that we were trying to heal."

Motherwell will still be without Stephen O'Donnell at Pittodrie while Aston Oxborough has been ruled out until mid-January with a hand fracture.

Nick McPheat
BBC Sport Scotland

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The positive vibes that were building at a rapid rate at Motherwell took a serious blow on Saturday with a deflating League Cup semi-final defeat to St Mirren.

Jens Berthel Askou's side have received plenty of plaudits for their brave approach this term, but in their poorest showing of the season they were beaten 4-1 on a sore night for the Fir Park club at Hampden.

The Dane will be desperate to see a response from his team when they travel up to Aberdeen on Sunday.

A win at Pittodrie earlier this campaign booked Motherwell's place in the League Cup last four. The following weekend, they beat Aberdeen again at home in the league.

A third straight victory over Jimmy Thelin's side, who drew at AEK Larnaca in the Conference League on Thursday, would help Askou's men get over last weekend's heartache and strengthen their top-six hopes.

Read all the Premiership picks

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• Aberdeen have won four of their past five home league games against Motherwell (D1), including the latest three in a row.

• After their 2-0 win in September, Motherwell are looking for back-to-back league victories over Aberdeen for the first time since November 2021.

• Aberdeen have won three of their past four league games (L1), as many as their previous 17 beforehand (W3 D4 L10).

• Motherwell have won their past two league games and are looking to win three on the bounce for the first time since September 2023.

• Only Celtic (34) have made more changes to their starting XIs across Scottish Premiership games this season than Aberdeen (30), who have used 27 different players, a joint high with Celtic.

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

I have sat down to write this five times, and I'm still struggling to find the words to convey my disappointment over the League Cup semi-final loss.

We were utterly spineless.

I can't think of a single Motherwell player who emerges from that defeat with pass marks.

We got it entirely wrong and our former manager Stephen Robinson knew exactly where to hurt us.

To make matters worse, in the aftermath former captain Peter Hartley was posting jabs on social media towards the club and Andy Halliday was on video being angry that Rangers lost on Sunday.

We are an embarrassment of a club right now. I am beyond deflated.

The early-season optimism - and belief that maybe one day we will finally bring home another major trophy - have been severely dented.

We asked for your views on Motherwell's 4-1 defeat against St Mirren in the semi-final of the Premier Sports cup.

Here's what some of you said:

James: As much as we passed the ball about, we were really poor. Probably the worst we've played this season. Definitely second best, Saints outplayed us.

Susan: Just not our day. St Mirren were well-organised and swamped the midfield and we just didn't catch fire. This won't define Motherwell's season but disappointing to lose 4-1.

Stuart: Street-wise St Mirren gave us a lesson on how to be clinical and controlling. Lots of lessons to make us stronger for the rest of the season. A really sore one for all connected to the Well.

Walter: Beaten by a more cynical but not a better team. We need to find a sharper edge to our game in front of both goals, otherwise we will be the team that is easy on the eye but without substantial success.

Gordon: Possession at our lowest so far. Saints hunted in packs to regain possession and deprive us of time and space to play our normal game. Saints had far more energy. We couldn't adapt and were tactically naive. They deserved their win.

Stephen: Having taken time to reflect on the heavy defeat to St Mirren, my overwhelming feeling is that myself and other Motherwell fans were severely let down by the application of the players.

St Mirren looked hungry and ready for the fight whereas we looked meek at best. Certain players who have received praise recently were posted missing which is incredibly disappointing. St Mirren thoroughly deserved their victory.

St Mirren scored twice late on to extinguish Motherwell's spirited fightback and seal a League Cup final place for the first time since winning the competition in 2013.

Have your say on the game here.

Read the match report here.