If at first, you don’t succeed, try and try again. It is the unofficial motto of the striker’s union, and one that Apostolos Stamatelopoulos fully subscribes to.
The Australian’s roar of relief after bagging his first goal of the league campaign against Aberdeen last week came right from the boots of a forward who had, to that point, been constantly banging on the door to no avail.
The Motherwell media team sticking a camera in his face a few minutes later, immediately following the final whistle, provoked a rather colourful response from a man who looked to have had the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders.
“Yeah, it was just a huge moment of relief,” Stamatelopoulos said.
“Even though it was a penalty, it’s obviously a bit of a weight off my mind and I know that I can go on and start scoring regularly now.
“There was never any doubt that I was going to take it. I’m the penalty taker and even though things hadn’t been going my way in front of goal so far, I always felt confident I would score.
“Still, obviously there was a bit of relief there, more so because I want to do my bit for the team rather than anything to do with me.
“The reaction of the boys was great and shows you just how tight knit we are. The manager has created a really special atmosphere here.”
So much so that fans of The Steelmen are dreaming that a special season may be in the offing, particularly if their frontman has now rediscovered his shooting boots.
“I’ve always felt confident in my ability, and I’m not one of these strikers that beats themselves up during games if I miss a chance or two,” he said.
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“Maybe afterwards, yeah, it will bother me, but during the game it’s all about dusting yourself off and going again.
“We do a lot of analysis, so I knew that I was doing the right things a lot of the time and making the right runs, getting myself into good positions. That last finishing touch or that last final ball was just missing sometimes, but you have to be brave enough to put yourself in there again. I’ll never stop doing that.
“In general, I think that in the early part of the season, the League Cup games, a lot of our issues in the final third were down to the relationships not yet being formed between the players. It wasn’t a tactical thing or even a confidence thing, and as time has gone on, you can see that has gotten a lot better.
“From a personal perspective, I really should be sitting on about six goals with the chances I’ve had, and the team as a whole should be sitting on a lot more points, but both of those things are now coming.”
That barren period of five goalless matches at the start of this season may have been a relatively brief one, even if it felt like an age to the player, but it was a test of character Stamatelopoulos is hopeful to now have navigated. He has been through worse, after all, in his short Motherwell career.
“Last season, mate, I’d never known anything like it,” he said.
“It was the toughest season of my life.”
So, what happened? After arriving in Scotland to a fair amount of fanfare and no little excitement after a standout season with Newcastle Jets, Stamatelopoulos was in buoyant mood ahead of a second crack at European football, having spent time in Greece earlier in his career.
As the clubs negotiated the transfer, though, his wife Soffey was going into labour with the couple’s first child, Leo. Moving to the other side of the world at any stage was going to be a wrench and require a period of adjustment, but for Stamatelopoulos, it meant temporarily leaving behind everything that was dear to him.
As long as the football was going well, though, he reckoned he could just about handle that situation. Famous last words, as it turned out.
“I injured my quad in my first start [against Rangers at Hampden] and that was a really difficult time,” he said.
“It definitely was a kick in the gut because I’d come halfway across the other side of the world, only spent two and a half days with my newborn son, had a week on the pitch and then three days later, I was out for about eight weeks. It wasn't fun, that's for sure.”
It would be two long months before Soffey and baby Leo would be able to make the move here and begin their own settling in period, but the difficulties of that time have at least given Stamatelopoulos a healthy sense of perspective when it comes to things like his recent mini goal drought.
“We’ve been really lucky that the club has such a family feel about it,” he said.
"That start to life here wasn’t the greatest for me, obviously, but we had a lot of injured boys at that time and there was a lot of us up in the gym together working hard every day. None of us wanted to be there obviously, but it was definitely good having a bunch of boys that were injured as well at the same time and helped me through it.
"Soffey was also lucky as well that the boys at the club have amazing wives and girlfriends. So, all the home games, she was able to form relationships with the girls, and they have their own group chat and all that stuff.
“So, that made things a bit easier for us as a family. I think you can underestimate how much it can affect a player if things aren’t quite right off the pitch, but that side of things is great for us now.”
With wife and son by his side and the Stamatelopoulos family settling into life in Scotland by mid-season then, a goal against Rangers in a thrilling draw at Fir Park in late December looked to have set his star firmly back on the rise.
Alas, an injury to his calf forced him off at the break in that same game, and remarkably, that would be the last the Fir Park faithful would see of him that season.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
"In the run-up to that game against Rangers I think I had four goals and an assist in five games. So, everything was finally clicking and I thought, ‘okay, I’m fit, I'm healthy’, and then that obviously happened.
“I came off at half time. We were 2-0 up as well, and then we ended up drawing 2-2, so it wasn't a good day. And the period after that again, it was definitely difficult.
“When I was working my way back, I then got a freak injury to my wrist in training, and honestly, it was almost comical, because it was just so innocuous and summed up my luck at that point.
“We were doing small-sided games, and I won’t name who it was, but one of the lads smacked a shot and it just hit off my arm. I knew it was pretty bad straight away.
“They brought me back to the stadium and I remember I was feeling sick, so that was a bad sign. Paul McGinn was injured at that time, and he came over and asked, ‘what’s happened to you?’, and I just said, ‘my wrist is f*****.’ I was laughing because it was just so absurd, but it wasn’t actually funny because I knew it was absolutely f*****.
“I was devastated. That’s just how the season went for me. Before that, I had only had one injury really of any significance and that was 10 weeks or so. That’s still quite a chunk of time out, but it was nothing like last season. It was just one thing after another.
“But the lads were great. I have to say, the team spirit has always been great here no matter who the manager has been or what players have come and gone. They all really looked out for me.
“On and off the pitch things are really great now, and hopefully if I can stay fit then I really feel like I’m in a good place to show everyone the best of myself.”
That Stamatelopoulos ended up in professional football at all, never mind plying his trade in North Lanarkshire, owes much to his father and a sliding doors moment when he was at hometown club, Adelaide United.
“I was ready to pack it in,” he said.
“I was going to Uni to study property and construction management. I had just about decided that was it for football.
“My dad, he had played at a decent level, and he persuaded me to give it one more season and see if I could make a go of it. I managed to force my way in and get a chance, and the rest is history.”
After spells at Western United and Newcastle Jets, Stamatelopoulos was attracting interest from the land of his ancestors, and he eventually upped sticks to have a crack at the Greek second tier with Rodos, before making the step up to the top-flight with Giannina. It didn’t quite pan out as he had hoped, however.
“Funnily enough, I found it much easier to settle here in Scotland than I did in Greece,” he said.
“My family have a saying that it’s one thing to go on holiday to Greece, but it’s another thing altogether to live there. Culturally, it’s quite different, whereas here, the culture is pretty similar to what we are used to back home.
"I wouldn’t say it was bad or anything, it was good, but it definitely made us grow up a lot quicker, because obviously we were living in a foreign country where I sort of understood the language but couldn’t really speak it at that point.
“It was definitely difficult for the both of us and it made us grow up fast and made us a lot stronger than what we were. It’s just a different culture to what we were used to. I grew up in a Greek family in Australia, but it’s very different to being in a Greek family in Australia to growing up in Greece, you know what I mean?”
A return to home comforts and a second stint with Newcastle Jets brought the best out of him. Stamatelopoulos caught fire, with a 25-goal haul that season catching not only the eye of Motherwell, but then Australia head coach Graham Arnold, who handed him an international debut against Palestine.
He had much to consider then when the chance arose to move abroad once more, but a former Motherwell hero was on hand to help out his old club once again.
“The one person that really played a major part in my decision in coming here was Scott McDonald,” he said.
“I played with him at Western United, and I’d spoken to him twice before coming here about the club, and he just reassured me that it would suit the way that I wanted to play and that I should go fill my boots and have a crack.
“So, once I’d spoken to him about it, it was pretty easy. I think he's coming over soon in November, so I’ll probably catch up for a coffee when he gets here.
"I also spoke to a lot of Australian boys that were over here. I know Cammy Devlin at Hearts and Ryan McGowan, and I’m really close mates with Ryan Strain, who was at St. Mirren then but he’s at Dundee United now, and Keanu Baccus.
“So, I’d spoken to them, and they'd basically reassured me that it's very, very similar to home, just the weather's a little different! And it’s exactly what they said, that's how it turned out. We’re loving life over here."
The weather, as he mentions, mind you, has been a bit of a shock to the system. A midweek defeat to Ross County in Dingwall last November, played out in horizontal rain and a biting Highland wind, was a reminder that he was a long, long way from home.
“It was the very first game in my life that I was actually shivering while running around,” he said.
“I had never experienced anything like that before because obviously in Australia, it’s the polar opposite.
“We play in the summer, so we're playing in like 34 degree heat, you know what I mean? So, it's very different. But we’re through that first Scottish winter now, so we’re used to it!”
The chances of Jens Berthel Askou’s new-style Motherwell catching anyone cold are rather unlikely now given the attention they have earned with their exciting, expansive approach, but they will certainly be looking to turn up the heat on champions Celtic on Sunday after another dismal display from Brendan Rodgers’ men in defeat to Braga on Thursday night.
Their manager has been bullish in his pre-match proclamations, stating that Motherwell will not be going to Celtic Park to frustrate their opponents, but to win, and his self-assurance has transmitted itself to his players.
"Not only has he got that confidence, but we've all got that same confidence,” Stamatelopoulos said.
“He's instilled that in us every single day on the training pitch and with our performances that we put in so far this season. So, we're definitely going there on Sunday full of confidence.
“All of this is down to the manager, I would say. You can talk about tactics and all that stuff, and there is no doubt that has played a big part. We’re playing great football, the message is clear and it’s all really clicking.
“But none of this would be working if he hadn’t created the sort of culture and atmosphere that we have in the dressing room. We are all together and pulling for one another.
“We know obviously that Celtic are one of the two biggest teams in Scotland, and it’s going to be hard, no game is easy, no team in this league is just going to roll over and let you win. But we're going there confident. We feel like we can get a result, and we do when we go into every single game. So, it's no different here.”
The control that Motherwell exerted in an eye-catching – if not, eye-popping – display in the first hour away to Hearts earlier in the season was, Stamatelopoulos believes, a huge moment for this team.
Although they eventually let their three-goal lead slip to draw the match, the players and the fans had proof positive right there of what could be achieved by playing their football.
“Tynecastle was big for us,” he said.
“Ok, we ended up drawing the game in the end, but I think that was the moment where people outside of the building really took notice that we were a proper team.
“We knew that we were good before that and we had worked so hard to get to that point, but it was still great to be a part of that kind of performance. For us, it was just about getting that win on the board and we were always confident it was going to come.
“So, we will be going to Celtic Park to play our game on our own terms. We know how tough it is going to be, it is the toughest fixture on the calendar probably. There are always tweaks that the manager makes here and there depending upon the opposition, but we are going there full of belief in ourselves and in our football. And with full belief we can win.
“How that turns out remains to be seen, but we are on this path, and we know it can get us results if we stick to what we’re doing.”
Just as individually, Stamatelopoulos is sure the goals will come if he keeps up his work rate and keeps putting into practice what his manager wants from him.
He has an extra incentive to do just that, too, hoping that a goal glut over the remainder of a (touch wood, injury-free) season can force him into the reckoning to make Tony Popovic’s Socceroos squad for next summer’s World Cup.
"I had a rough time last year, obviously with a lot of injuries and stuff, so I’m by no means expecting for my name to be there every single time that the camps come up,” he said.
“I know it is a cliché, but if I don’t stay focused on what I’m doing here now and I get wrapped up in where I think I should be in the future, it’s never going to happen. So, I just need to focus literally game by game and hopefully, it will happen.
“I do want to go. But that's only going to happen if I do well at Motherwell. So, I’m just going to focus on here first and hopefully that takes care of itself.
“For me to be successful, scoring goals and helping my team win is the only way I’m going to get there, because at the end of the day, that’s my job, to score goals.”
Which he’ll keep trying, and trying, to do. Finally, it seems, Stamatelopoulos may just get his reward.
