Motherwell

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Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou: "I'm extremely disappointed with a couple of things. Happy with the first half, I thought we were excellent and scored two beautiful goals. We should have scored another one and I don't think I'm ever going to understand how they disallowed that goal. That's one of the worst VAR decisions I've seen in my career so far - until it got beaten in the second half when Paul McGinn gets pulled just before he's about to hit the ball. That's how it is.

"Looking at our own performance, the first half was fantastic but we were way too messy in the second half. We played an open game when we shouldn't and that let them score some crazy goals. We didn't deliver the quality we should when we put a little bit of pressure on them. We made some bad decisions in the beginning of the second half, we didn't do what we set up to do. We forced our transitions and forced our game on the ball, some technical mistakes and then we weren't good enough at repairing it. We need to perform both halves like the second and we didn't do that today.

"We show up on Monday and then we look at what we need to do better. You move on. Right now we all need to clear our heads a little bit but Monday is a new week, there's a game we need to win next week and that's what we'll set out to do."

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Motherwell have Stephen Welsh, Elijah Just, Tom Sparrow and Callum Hendry back in contention with Callum Slattery set to rejoin full training on Monday. Sam Nicholson, Filip Stuparevic (both knee), Eseosa Sule, Jordan McGhee (both thigh) and Zach Robinson (Achilles) are long-term absentees.

Falkirk's Sam Hart has recovered from a bout of concussion. Aidan Nesbitt, Ethan Ross, Jamie Sneddon remain sidelined along with Coll Donaldson, who has had abdominal surgery and is expected to be out until Christmas.

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Motherwell midfielder Oscar Priestman is getting used to Jens Berthel Askou's "relentless" style of play but is excited for another game on Saturday.

The 22-year-old joined from Australian side Western Sydney in the summer and has made four appearances for the Fir Park club so far.

After narrowly missing out on a draw against champions Celtic just before the international break, Priestman and his teammates are ready to get back on the pitch and show what they can do.

"Especially after a little break everyone has come back refreshed and reinvigorated," he said.

"We can't wait to get back out there and hopefully get a win.

"It's still early in the season and we're building each day but I can see there's been improvement in the time I've been there.

"We'll just try and get better and better and I think once it fully clicks we'll be really good."

Askou's side have been praised for their brave, attacking style of play, particularly in the game against Celtic when Motherwell stuck to their approach and played out from the back.

Priestman says he's been enjoying a new style, even if there's challenges.

"Especially back home I played in a different system but there is that relentless nature to keep going," he added.

"We have our style and we'll stick to it but it's exciting to play in that system."

Scott Mullen
BBC Sport Scotland

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Motherwell have sold more than 7,000 tickets for their Premier Sports Cup semi-final against St Mirren.

The Fir Park club are in their second League Cup last four in the space of two seasons, but have sold 600 tickets more than they had by this point 12 months ago for their 2-1 defeat by Rangers.

The Hampden tie is on 1 November (1730 GMT), with manager Jens Berthel Askou refusing to join in with the excitement just yet.

"We'll probably sell quite a few more, which is amazing," he said.

"A lot of people are looking forward to that, we're focusing on the next job that's on Saturday.

"Obviously we know it's in the calendar, but we're not spending that much energy on it now, it's up to you guys and our fans and our staff around, the first team, and we'll get to that when we're there."

Askou welcomes back Elijah Just, Callum Hendry and Tom Sparrow back in full training for Saturday's visit of Premiership newcomers Falkirk, with Callum Slattery also partially back.

"It's just raised the level of the intensity and the quality that we're able to produce in training sessions," he said. "They look really, really eager and really hungry, so it's great to have them back.

"A lot of good players out there competing and lifting the level, which is extremely positive.

"We've been waiting for a couple of weeks, so good times."

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Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou has been speaking to the media before his team's Premiership meeting with Falkirk on Saturday.

Here's the key points:

• The club have sold over 7,000 tickets for their Premier Sports Cup semi-final with St Mirren on 1 November.

• Elijah Just, Tom Sparrow and Callum Hendry are back in training. It has raised the level, intensity and quality of training.

• Callum Slattery is also partially back in training but will be back fully next week.

• Performance against Celtic gives confidence, despite losing 3-2, that they can win next time the two teams meet.

• Apostolos Stamatelopoulos is now getting the rewards for his effort and the team are looking sharper in attack, but there is still more to come.

• All focus is on this weekend's match against Falkirk, and he'll leave others outside the group to get excited about the prospect of their trip to Hampden Park.

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• This will be the first top-flight match between Motherwell and Falkirk since the Bairns enjoyed a 1-0 win in April 2010. Indeed, Falkirk have only lost one of their last six top-flight games against the Steelmen (W3 D2).

• Motherwell are unbeaten in nine home league games against newly promoted opposition (W6 D3) since a 0-1 defeat to Dundee United in August 2020. Their last two such games have seen 13 goals, drawing 3-3 with Dundee in December 2023 and beating Dundee United 4-3 in December 2024.

• Motherwell are unbeaten in eight home league games (W4 D4), their longest run in the top-flight on Opta's records (from 1998-99).

• Although Falkirk have lost two of their three away league games this season, their only Scottish Premiership win in 2025-26 came on the road at Aberdeen in August (1-0).

• Apostolos Stamatelopoulos has scored (three) or assisted (one) all four of Motherwell's goals in their last two league games. The last player to be directly involved in two-plus goals in three successive Scottish Premiership appearances while playing for a side other than the Old Firm clubs (Celtic/Rangers) was Liam Boyce in February 2020.

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

Now that tickets for the League Cup semi-final have gone on general sale, it's to shine a light on the cost of this game for fans.

With tickets for my family of four combined with our bus tickets coming to £170 before on-the-day expenses such as food, drinks and match programmes, the expense is huge.

I am a Motherwell season-ticket holder and can drive to Fir Park easily, but the average away day can cost up to £50 depending on who we are playing and the transport available. It all adds up.

As football grows more expensive, it is isolating more people than it is drawing in. More fans, myself included, are making the decision to miss games because of the cost rather than scheduling conflicts.

Football is a business and, like any other industry, it has suffered from the pandemic and cost of living.

I fully understand and empathise with clubs that have been hit hard. When you see clubs going through financial difficulties and potential liquidation, it is tragic, but wealth in Scottish football is not spread equally between the Scottish FA and the SPFL's 42 clubs.

And prices continue to increase for Scotland supporters travelling to Hampden or abroad.

One game at the national stadium could come to more than £200 for fans who live outside the central belt.

Times are tough for a lot of people and you are not any less of a fan if you cannot make it to games because of your own personal circumstances.

I hope we can sell out our allocation at Hampden but I don't want it to come at a horrible cost or with fans feeling guilty if that doesn't happen.

Whether you're cheering the team on from the stands, at home or in the pub, you will be always be a true Steelman at heart.

Jane Lewis
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

"If you want to be entertained, go to the cinema." A famous quote from former Kilmarnock manager Bobby Williamson when once questioned about his team's style of play.

It's a sentiment Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou presumably doesn't agree with.

His team are entertaining on the pitch, with the players adapting well to his philosophy and for the most part putting it into practice.

The fans are lapping it up and Askou has also been full of praise for his team. Even when "a moment of bad decision-making" has proved costly, as it did against Celtic on Sunday, he seems able to cast it aside, seeing it as a consequence of the style he wants his players to embrace.

The costly mistake at Celtic Park came when goalkeeper Calum Ward passed the ball straight to Benjamin Nygren, who accepted the kind invitation to equalise in the 69th minute.

Salt was rubbed into Motherwell wounds when Celtic snatched victory with Daizen Maeda's injury-time header.

Afterwards the Motherwell manager calmly said such errors "come now and then".

He has accepted that, but what about the supporters? They seem heavily invested in Askou's revolution. The odd disappointment they can probably handle, as long as it doesn't become a frequent eventuality.

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Elijah Just joins up with New Zealand as they face Poland and Norway in friendlies.

Tawanda Maswanhise is part of the Zimbabwe squad as they take on South Africa and Lesotho in World Cup qualifiers.

Regan Charles-Cook is with Grenada for a friendly double-header against the British Virgin Islands and Cuba.

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

The unbeaten run is over - but we were the better team at Celtic Park.

That's not something I thought I would ever say, but it just shows how far we have grown in a short time under Jens Berthel Askou.

The performance augurs well as we build towards the League Cup semi-final against St Mirren on 1 November.

Admittedly it wasn't a perfect display as a bizarre decision from Calum Ward gifted Celtic their equaliser, but I'm not mad at him for it.

We genuinely should have beaten both Rangers and Celtic this season. Lack of focus and attention is what has ultimately cost us.

Going into another international break at this stage gives Askou more time on the training pitch with the players before a run of three league games - two at home - then the big trip to Hampden.

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Manager Jens Berthel Askou is confident his Motherwell side will make further progress with the help of returning players after his injury-hit team's 14-match unbeaten run came to an end.

The Fir Park club were on course for a first win Celtic Park since 2015 after Apostolos Stamatelopoulos hit a double either side of half-time but were beaten 3-2 in stoppage-time.

It was Askou's first defeat as Motherwell boss, but he believes the team will bounce back stronger.

"I think this team will grow," said the manager, who was without 10 first team players.

"We've had a lot of our really big players, who were really important players for us in the beginning of the season, out for a while.

"We've had good results and strong performances in that period and I'm confident with them coming back over the next week or so that we will have even more firepower for the next period, and especially the next time we play Celtic."

Motherwell will remain without long-term absentees Sam Nicholson, Filip Stuparevic, Eseosa Sule, Jordan McGhee and Zach Robinson when they face Falkirk after the international break.

Stamatelopoulos, Ibrahim Said and Johnny Koutroumbis all went off with muscle issues at Celtic Park while Elliot Watt and Tawanda Maswanhise were also struggling towards the end, but the initial signs were that the problems were "fatigue and cramp".

But captain Paul McGinn returned from injury for the match on Sunday.

"It was fantastic to have him with us. You couldn't really see that he's been out of training and games for four weeks," Askou added.

"So it's amazing to have players of that quality coming back and then being able to deliver from day one.

"Now we have Tom Sparrow, Eli Just, Callum Hendry, Callum Slattery, really good players for us coming back within the next week or two, which is extremely positive.

"That's why, even though I would have loved to sit here with a win, even a draw, I'm still positive in what's coming."

Jonathan Sutherland
Sportscene presenter

Despite an impressive performance against Celtic, Motherwell were undone by a late Daizen Maeda goal to leave Parkhead with nothing but they have one player in my team of the week.

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos took his first goal against Celtic superbly well, showing perfect timing, bravery and with the boots flying. Showed he had ice in the veins too to fire the Steelmen ahead from the spot. Unfortunate to be on the losing side.

We asked for your views on Motherwell's 3-2 defeat against Celtic.

Here's what some of you said:

David: It's now too many crazy mistakes from Calum Ward and time for a change. We had Celtic on the ropes, with the match there for the winning until the ball was played directly to Benjamin Nygren. Years since I have left Parkhead feeling this deflated.

Gary: No point playing great football when you have a goalkeeper consistently costing us goals at big moments. Six points lost due to errors from Ward. Aston Oxborough needs to be given a chance.

John: Absolutely gutted with the manner we gifted Celtic their second goal. We were totally fine until that point and again some of our football was a joy to behold. Totally confident that in the next stage of the season our football will pay off even more.

Matt: It's the hope that kills you. Good on Jens Berthel Askou and the team for not changing the approach despite the opposition. Some great football at times and Celtic looked like they were there for the taking, but alas. No doubt there will be disappointed, but this is the most fun I've had as a Motherwell supporter in years. It's also important to remember how much Askou has done in such a short amount of time.

Andrew: Ward needs dropped now. Simple as that.

Robert: We threw it away today. All our discipline and good play ruined by players switching off. Oxborough should be between the sticks, as Ward is always liable for what happened.

George: A difficult one to take. However I'd rather see us playing our own game and trying to win the game in this way, rather than packing the box and simply hoping we get something. Continues to bode well for the rest of season.

Derek: Hugely gutted to lose the game in the manner we did, a costly error from Ward which is a shame as he had made a few great saves in the game. You can see we are ultimately lacking quality off the bench with the likes of Callum Slattery, Elijah Just, Tom Sparrow and Callum Hendry all missing. We need guys like them fit and available if we are going to get results in games like this.

James: Gutted we left with nothing. The second goal was a nightmare. Lots of plus points but ultimately no points. At least we had hope for a bit, it was the first time in a long time we had that at Celtic Park.

Watch the highlights as Daizen Maeda's dramatic late winner secured all three points for Celtic against Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership.

(Available to UK users only)

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Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou: "I'm gutted on the players' and fans' behalf. I'm extremely proud of our performances, not just today but the first part of the season. We've come a long way.

"We've had to juggle a bit with the squad, progressing in the cup and getting points in the league. Today we showed up and tried to do it our way and gave it our best shot.

"We danced a bit on the line and it went the wrong way. That's how it is when you play the best teams.

"I can't praise our players enough. We gave ourselves the opportunity to win today, which not many teams do here. I know we'll grow over the next period.

"I'm not asking them to give the ball to the opposition inside the box, but no matter which style you prefer there will be ball losses.

"We win a lot from what we do, I think it's obvious. It (Celtic's second goal) was a moment of bad decision-making, which comes sometimes."

Daizen Maeda's injury-time header earned Celtic a thrilling Scottish Premiership victory after being pushed to the limit by Motherwell.

Have your say on the game here.

Read the match report here.

Scott Mullen at Fir Park
BBC Sport Scotland

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Johnny Koutroumbis says Motherwell will not abandon their brave style of play when they go to face defending champions Celtic on Sunday.

The Fir Park side are undefeated under Jens Berthel Askou, who has committed to a bold approach of play including short passes out from the back and building play.

But with arguably their toughest test so far coming, albeit against a misfiring Celtic, Koutroumbis says belief in the camp right now is high.

"The belief that we can go out and play with confidence is infectious," said the Australian defender.

"We have to be confident to play. We can't go away from our playing style based on who we are playing against.

"If we are going to have a successful season we have to stick to the fundamentals that the coach has implemented."

Koutroumbis was the unlikely goal hero last Saturday as Motherwell recorded their first Scottish Premiership win of the season against Aberdeen.

"It was a big relief," said the right-back. "It started to feel like losses walking off the pitch with only one point.

"Two wins against Aberdeen, we just need to keep going and look forward."

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Celtic captain Callum McGregor believes it is only natural that Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou is looking for a victory over his side.

The Fir Park boss has not been shy in expressing his desire to earn the Lanarkshire club a first win at Celtic Park since 2015.

Well sit fourth in the Premiership table, having not lost a match this season with their unbeaten run stretching back 14 games.

Meanwhile, Celtic lie six points ahead in second. Brendan Rodgers' side have failed to score in their past two matches - a goalless draw with Hibernian and a Europa League defeat to Braga.

"I think every manager and every team and every player, when they turn up to a game at the weekend, they want to win," the 32-year-old midfielder said.

"If he said anything different, then you'd probably question that. We're the same. We turn up, we want to win, we want to play good football. Let's see what kind of match we get on Sunday.

"They've started the season really well. I watched them in the first game of the season. Really committing, trying to play the right way. It's good to see that and they've had good success with it as well.

"For sure, they'll come here on Sunday and they'll try to play, which then gives us an opportunity to be aggressive on the pressure and try to implement our style into the game."

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Celtic are still missing Alistair Johnston (hamstring) and long-term absentee Jota (knee).

Stephen Welsh cannot face his parent club but Motherwell can bring captain Paul McGinn back into defence after injury.

Elijah Just, Tom Sparrow, Callum Hendry and Callum Slattery are back in training and manager Jens Berthel Askou hopes at least one of them can make the squad.

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

Scott Mullen at Fir Park
BBC Sport Scotland

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Jens Berthel Askou is out to "build something that will stand" as he prepares to take his undefeated Motherwell to Celtic Park.

The Fir Park side go to Glasgow on Sunday hoping to catch a vulnerable Celtic off guard after their Europa League defeat to Braga on Thursday.

Since arriving in the summer, Askou has revamped Motherwell's style of play into a brave and bold possession-based machine which continues to motor.

"One thing is to do something that looks good over six, seven, 10 games maybe. Nice," said the Dane.

"But we haven't won anything, we haven't really produced anything league-wise yet. Except some good performances and a few good results here and there. But we want to do something throughout the season.

"And we want to push in the cups as well, see how far we can go there. So I hope that when we are in May, in June, that we are in a positive place as well. That's the most important thing."

Despite going unbeaten this season so far in all competitions, Motherwell had to wait until last weekend for their first Premiership win as they eventually saw off Aberdeen.

Another victory - which would be their first at Celtic Park for almost 10 years - could spring them into third spot, and Askou is emboldened going to Glasgow focused on winning rather than setting up to stop their hosts.

"I think the most important thing is for us to focus on us, knowing that we are competing against clubs who have had more time together than us, who have more resources than us," he said.

"It's no excuse to not be competitive and ambitious. And that's what we try to do. And we know it's going to be really, really hard to get a top position in the league when the league is over.

"But we are going for it with everything we can. And Sunday is going to be a big game for us to show that we are serious when we say we are here to compete."

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland

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When Motherwell picked up their first league win of the season against Aberdeen last weekend, Elliot Watt was right at the heart of it.

Not on the scoresheet, or the provider of an assist, but the midfielder ran the Saturday night show.

In the first half, when the Dons burst out the blocks and appeared rejuvenated by their switch in system, Jens Berthel Askou's side were forced to sit back, suck up pressure and scurry away on the break.

Watt was consistently on hand to change the direction of play, pull the strings and set the Steelmen on their way. He did so with elegance and energy.

He sprayed the most passes in claret and amber - 110, with 102 of them deemed accurate by Opta, and made the most entries into the final third (22).

Such presence will need to be replicated if Motherwell are to come away from Celtic Park with a positive result on Sunday.

Following their meek Europa League performance in defeat to Braga, Brendan Rodgers' side are far from firing on all cylinders. A chance for a first 'Well win in the east end of Glasgow since December 2015?

Read all the weekend's Premiership picks