Motherwell winger Jake Hastie showed why his manager had no doubts over his focus ahead of his side’s 3-0 win over Hamilton.
Hastie faced his first major media conference on Friday following his Ladbrokes Premiership player of the month award, hours after reports broke that he was poised to sign a pre-contract with Rangers.
The 19-year-old dismissed the claims as speculation and maintained his focus was on the Lanarkshire derby, and he proved that by netting in Motherwell’s first-half rout.
The winger took his tally to six goals in nine matches when he steered home a ball from two-goal David Turnbull, and came close on another two occasions with decent efforts from long range.
“That’s why I played him,” manager Stephen Robinson said. “If speculation does affect him or any of the other players or they drop form then we’ve got players on the bench desperate to get game time.
“Elliott (Frear) came on and showed in flashes what he can do and is unfortunate not to be in the team as he was our best player against Hamilton before and Ross County. But we’ve gone on a very good run since then.
“So they all have to be at it given where we want to take this football club.”
Midfielder Turnbull, another 19-year-old, took his first-team tally this season to eight goals in 22 matches and produced another impressive display on the ball.
“David Turnbull was outstanding,” Robinson said. “He’s becoming a complete footballer and is getting better with each game. He’s doing the bits he perhaps wasn’t doing when he first came in.
“He’s a 90-minute player now rather than a 60-minute player. If he can keep his feet on the ground he can go a long way in the game.”
The victory gives Motherwell the chance to leapfrog Hibernian and move into the Ladbrokes Premiership top six when they travel to Easter Road on Saturday.
“We’ve given ourselves a good chance,” Robinson said. “We felt that this game was really important to go there on the back of a good victory.
“That will be a tough game. I went to Easter Road on Friday night and they got a good point against Rangers.
“But we go into that with a lot of confidence. If our forwards play with the ability and standards they’ve set in recent weeks we’ve got every chance of winning the game.”
Hamilton head coach Brian Rice was “raging” with his side’s first-half performance and told them in no uncertain terms that they need to stay out of the bottom two.
“It is a three-horse race and we are leading that three-horse race,” he said. “We have to be at the front of that three-horse come the end of the season. I have told them that.
“I am not a shouter and a bawler. We have had a discussion, I said to them we are leading the race but we have to win it.”
