Motherwell boss Graham Alexander knows his side will need full energy levels as they head to Celtic Park on Sunday, and is grateful that they have a full week of training.
Alexander felt Tuesday night’s 1-0 win at home to Dundee United in torrential rain, on an energy-sapping pitch, took its toll on Saturday, but he was happy to emerge with a 1-1 draw against Hibs at Easter Road.
And Alexander said: “It’s always important to get a point [going into these games]. We want to add points onto our tally, it’s another one in the right direction.
“We know there are tough challenges every week, they don’t get any easier. We’ve got a full week of training now to get the energy levels back – I thought they were just a little bit down from Tuesday.
"I can understand that, because the pitch had been really testing for the players on Tuesday and I didn’t want to make too many changes.
“We had to make two, but I thought that just told in the second half a little bit. But with a full week’s training, the boys will have those levels back up and we’ll need them next week, because it will be a tough game.”
Tony Watt struck on the hour-mark to cancel out Kevin Nisbet’s wonder-strike opener in a first half that Motherwell dominated.
The Fir Park gaffer felt the draw was the least his side deserved, but it might have come at a cost with injuries to defender Ricki Lamie and forward Kaiyne Woolery.
He said: “Ricki came off and that means we have one ‘recognised’ centre-half, but we have players who can do that role for us as well, so we’ll see how they are during the week.
“It was unfortunate, because Ricki has been in brilliant form for us, but we brought Jake Carroll on, who has been training like an animal, and ready to come in, and he fitted in seamlessly, contributing to a clean sheet in the second half.
“There are a few boys with bumps and bruises, it was a tough, physical game, but we don’t mind that. There were a few at half-time that were struggling a little bit, which makes the second half performance and result even better.
“We were just hoping that no-one else had to come off after that because we had made our three subs after 75 minutes, and wanted to win the game.
“Fortunately enough, the boys were in good enough condition to stay on.”
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