This is an excerpt from this week's McGarry on Motherwell, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
There are moments that bring fans and a team together. Big wins, in front of big supports, for instance. And last Saturday, this Motherwell team and the 1100 fans who packed into the away end at Pittodrie had one of those.
There were a few reasons why the victory against Aberdeen felt special. Firstly, and most obviously, because it came in a cup quarter final, and the subsequent draw against St Mirren represents a wonderful opportunity (for both sides, it has to be said) to get back to a major final.
Then there was the post-match communal celebration between fans and players, where some of the new arrivals got to experience just what the victory meant to the club’s fanbase, and just how much Motherwell means to its supporters.
Of course, none of this is as important when it comes to producing an outcome on a Saturday as the work that is done during the week on the training pitch, and clearly has been done meticulously by Jens Berthel Askou. The quality of your coaching, and of your players, will ultimately be the thing that determines whether or not you have a decent season.
But I do believe there are some intangibles in football that can help tilt a successful enough campaign into a memorable, historic one, and a strong bond between the squad and the stands is a major positive for any team to have.
Read more:
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- Motherwell style is the key to bringing the fans back to Fir Park week on week
- Why Motherwell should stick with Apostolos Stamatelopoulos - on one condition
Such things, like saying all facets of the club are pulling in the same direction, can sound like footballing cliches, but there is a reason why managers will often speak of creating such an environment at their club. And that is because it is a powerful thing.
It is somewhat ironic that the last time it felt as though there was a real togetherness like this around Fir Park was when Stephen Robinson’s famous (or infamous, if you are Fabio Cardoso) Motherwell Thunderdome were tearing their way through the domestic cup competitions.
Again, some people may scoff at the notion that it matters a jot whether or not the playing squad seem to be a likeable bunch of lads, but there has clearly been great thought put into not only the footballing ability of the new arrivals at Motherwell in the summer window, but on the content of their characters and the energy they bring with them into the building every day.
Last week, I was part of a three-man newspaper team who interviewed Regan Charles-Cooke, for instance, and even my non-Motherwell-minded colleagues skipped out of the Phil O’Donnell Stand believing that there was only going to be one outcome at Pittodrie.
He seems to be the happiest man in Scottish football, and he put much of that down to simply loving coming into the environment that the players and Berthel Askou have created every day. Charles-Cooke himself getting the winning goal seemed fitting, and you couldn’t help being almost as delighted for him as you were for the club and the fans.
In a more tangible sense, what was also important about the win at Aberdeen in my book was that the team and the manager answered some of the early questions that have been raised around their resilience and their flexibility.
Along with the many plaudits the team have received so far this season have been some concerns around their ability to see out games, and to adapt to different circumstances within matches. Berthel Askou has a defined style of play and certain principles he will not deviate from, and there can be a eagerness from many within Scottish football to quickly paint such managers as dogmatic idealists who are naïve to the demands of the game here. Hiya Russell, hiya pal.
But Berthel Askou and his players did make tweaks this time around somewhat on the hop, and to good effect. When Aberdeen pressed high early on, with Topi Keskinen swarming all over Calum Ward and disrupting Motherwell’s deep build up, the players mixed it up by going longer with their passing.
Inevitably, when Aberdeen could no longer maintain the intensity of their press, Motherwell then took a firm grip of the game for the middle portion of the contest, reverting to their now recognisable style and getting the reward their chance creation more than merited.
At that point, given the traumas of the leads that have been thrown away this season, many fans may not have been celebrating too early. But having been criticised at Tynecastle in particular for not tweaking things to see out the game, the manager did so here, dropping into a low block when necessary, confident in his assertion that this Aberdeen side would not have the nous to break them down in open play.
So, a fantastic day all round for the fans, the players, the manager and the club as a whole. A first league win against the same opponent on Saturday evening at Fir Park and the fans will be dreaming of more than ‘just’ League Cup success.
I am writing this just after getting in the house from Belgrade, where I was working on the Celtic game against Red Star (or Crvena Zvezda for all you hipster types), and one thing the experience has certainly done is whet my appetite for Motherwell to have a long overdue European campaign next season.
Yes, yes, I know that pride cometh before the fall, but as I looked on enviously at the Celtic fans enjoying their pre-match pints in the sunshine of the city’s Republic Square yesterday, I couldn’t help but allow my mind to drift back to the wonderful scenes in Nancy as a sea of claret and amber clad eejits cavorted in the bubble-bathed fountains of Place Stanislas back in 2008.
What a trip that was, and I’m sure many of you will have your own memories of that and some of the other matches on the continent that Motherwell have enjoyed, particularly the run to the Europa League playoff round in 2010, perhaps.
Unfortunately, the last couple of times the club has qualified for these competitions have been a bit of a damp squib, whether that be down to the nightmare of Covid or the even more harrowing nightmare of Alexanderball in Sligo.
But once again, even with the usual caveat of how early it is in the season, Motherwell fans can dream about such things again. Whether they ultimately come to fruition is another matter entirely, but how good it is to be looking forward to matchdays once again.
