Stephen Robinson met the broadcast media on Friday morning ahead of the Betfred Cup clash with Livingston and covered a number of topics.
The Steelmen boss was asked about taking inspiration from last season’s cup run, the threat posed by Livi, synthetic surfaces and Gaël Bigirimana’s return to the team.
On how the squad is shaping up ahead of the weekend’s game
We’ve got a few injuries. Apart from the long-term injuries with Charles Dunne, Craig Tanner and Ryan Bowman, we’ve got Liam Grimshaw, Liam Donnelly and Chris Cadden struggling. Cadds has a dead leg he picked up in training so we were racing against time with him, but we’ve had a good week. We’ve had good preparation.
We took a lot of the positive stuff out of the Accies game. When the emotions of the result are gone, you can look back and see there was a lot of good stuff. So we’ve worked and trying to keep on building on those things.
On taking the positives from matches despite defeats
What you have got to remember is when we first started the season we had Charles Dunne and Cédric Kipré, who were part of a defence that kept 20 clean sheets.
The first time Tom [Aldred], Carl [McHugh] and Peter [Hartley] have played together was last Saturday against Hamilton Accies and I thought they were excellent.
As much as people look to find negatives, that was a real positive: three strong boys who defended excellent. Up front we’re still trying to build partnerships. We thought Ryan Bowman and Curtis Main had a partnership last season and Bowman and Sammon looked good together against Queen of the South, then you lose one to injury.
That happens at every football club. I’m not one for excuses and I think it’s opportunity for people to build new partnerships, but you can’t click your fingers and wave a magic wand and that happens straight away. That said, I can see good signs with certain people building relationships as well and its up to me to get the right partnerships.
On whether memories of the cups last season provide inspiration for the players
You know it’s funny as we had the exact same start as last season. We lost the first two league games and the cup obviously gave us a real bonus. We’re very aware that it can really kick start our season and give us a real drive going forward.
It’s a massive game for us at Livingston. We’re hoping to replicate a lot of the defensive stuff against Accies, but with a wee bit more quality in the final third. We’ve already spoke with the boys and know when we lost we have to change what we do slightly. So we’ve tweaked it and I think will be better for that as well.
In terms of the cups last year, what it did for the football club in terms of raising the profile of individual players and the club as a whole, as well as financially, it’s a massive goal for us [to try and repeat it].
People are excited by it. You’re able to take a little rest from the league where we haven’t started as well as we wanted to. And you know that momentum can take you forward, as it did last year.
On whether Livi are an ‘unknown quantity’
I saw a lot Livingston last season. It’s an easy one to go and watch because it’s so close and I found myself there with Martin Foyle [Motherwell’s head of recruitment].
I think they’re solid, a very decent side. They’ve come up and started brightly. They put in a decent performance against Celtic and got a good result last week. So it’s going be a tough tie for us, we’re well aware of that.
They’re physical and can play direct, but they’ve also got quality in their side. We’re well aware and we’ll be well prepared, so they’re definitely not an unknown quantity to us.
On any concerns over the new Almondvale synthetic surface
I’m not sure many people like them [artificial pitches], if we’re being honest. That said, it’ll almost be as new to them as it is to us given they haven’t played many games on it. So it will definitely not be an excuse on our part.
On artificial pitches impacting team selection
There might be a couple of players you’re wary of, but we can’t as we haven’t got a big enough squad and with our injury list at the moment, I’m not in a position to do that anyway.
I don’t know, I haven’t seen any evidence that it makes injuries any worse. So until that comes up, we’ll just get on with it. We’ve got tough boys here who don’t want to miss games so we won’t use that an excuse.
As I said, I think they’ve only played one competitive game on it so it’s not as if they’re overly used to it either. No excuses, we’ll just get on with it and try and win the match.
On Chris Cadden facing his brother Nicky
Chris tried to train yesterday [Thursday] and he wasn’t quite right. We’re looking at him again today and we’ll give it right up until the last minute. But I know there could be wee bit of family rivalry with one playing on the right and one on the left. So if he doesn’t play he’ll get a little bit of stick at home from Nicky I would imagine.
Seriously though, Chris is a massive player for us and we’re hoping he’ll be okay, but it’s a race against time now. He got a dead leg, a clash with Curtis Main in training in a bad area, just above his knee. We’re trying to get the swelling down so he has full mobility, but at this stage he’s looking quite doubtful.
On Liam Grimshaw’s injury
Liam’s missed a couple of weeks with a swollen knee. He’s had a scan on and we didn’t find anything untoward thankfully. Again, it’s a case of trying to get the swelling down.
On Gaël Bigirimana’s return to the team
Yeah I totally agree with Gaël’s summary. People always build up something that isn’t, that somehow there was a problem between Bigi and I. Not at all, he’s a super, super boy and you couldn’t wish to meet a nicer lad.
He did come and wasn’t fit enough and he’ll accept that himself. There is never any doubting his talent. Some people hit the ground running, some don’t. It’s taken Gaël a little bit longer, but there’s no doubt his talent and his attitude towards his work now.
At one stage we thought he might leave the football club and that he wanted to go back down south and things. His application since has shown he wants to be part of it and he’s been fantastic.
You know he’s been the last off the training pitch. He’s the last one out of the gym, which is maybe something he didn’t value too much before. But he’s come back. He is a different player with a different attitude and we’re hoping we reap rewards in that because we’ve got a very talented boy on our hands.
There was never any doubt of his ability. He’ll probably be the first to tell he wasn’t quite fit enough and maybe his mindset wasn’t quite right to do what we knew someone of his ability could do.
He can unlock doors. If there’s one thing about us, we’re organised and disciplined and we need a little bit more. As I said, if you lose the players we have lost, with their physicality, then you have to tweak things. And I think Bigi can be a part of that, as can Alex Gorrin and Allan Campbell. Boys that can make things happen.
We have to look a little bit differently and I think Bigi can play a big part in that.
