Motherwell must halt slump now to salvage season, admits Graham Alexander

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander called for his players to show their character after their long wait for a league win continued.

Well were held to a 1-1 draw by a Dundee team missing 10 players after being hit by Covid-19 issues and injuries.

The Fir Park result made it 10 games without picking up three points and they fell down to eighth in the cinch Premiership.

Paul McMullan’s early opener, after slack play from Stephen O’Donnell, means Motherwell have not opened the scoring in a game since Boxing Day.

They were soon level through Joe Efford but never really built on their equaliser, and Dundee looked the more threatening team after the break until Alexander made his first changes by bringing on Callum Slattery and Ross Tierney in the 77th minute.

Dundee held out and the home support vented their frustrations at the final whistle, although many had been doing that for much of the game.

Motherwell were leapfrogged in the table on goal difference by Ross County, who were 13 points adrift of the Steelmen going into the winter break.

But they still have a chance to make it a season to remember, with next Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against Hibernian followed by games against St Johnstone, St Mirren and Livingston before the league split.

Alexander said: “We are in a moment where you have to try and look up instead of down and feel sorry about yourself, get your chin off your chest and look at the opportunities in front of us. We have got opportunities in the league and the cup.

“Come the end of the season we could be looking back thinking ‘we dug ourselves out of a bit of a hole and really showed what we are as characters and people’.

“That’s what it’s about right now, it’s not about being a good footballer, it’s about being a good character and good person and making sure you are ready to fight.

“I think every club outside the top two have had a similar spell. We were flying pre-Christmas and there were other clubs who hadn’t won for nine or 10 games. Every team has been affected but most of the teams have come out of it.

“We will come out of it, but we have to come out of it right now if we want to give ourselves a chance of making this season count.”

Dundee were missing six players through isolation rules on top of injury issues. That meant a first start for 20-year-old goalkeeper Harry Sharp and a first Dundee appearance since August for midfielder Declan McDaid, who was thrown up front in the absence of any available strikers.

McDaid threatened twice after the break and manager Mark McGhee said: “More importantly, he kept running, he kept them under pressure and kept battling for it.

“I thought it was a good centre-forward’s performance. He ran himself into the ground.

“I said to him before the game that if he came off having run 12k, I’d reckon he’d have played well. If he’d only run 10k, he hadn’t. I reckon he probably ran 14. He was excellent.”

Dundee now host St Mirren on Wednesday in their game in hand.

“The Covid guys won’t be back, they have set rules to adhere to,” McGhee said. “Niall McGinn and Charlie Adam might be back.”