MOTHERWELL supporters were given a quick reminder on Saturday of just what they would have been missing out on had defender Dan Casey not made the decision to return to the club.
The big centre-back came crashing back into Scottish football against Queen’s Park, with his first involvement in the game to crash through the back of visiting attacker Patrick Jarrett.
It was typical of his robust approach to defending, with the Irishman playing a major part in the resolve that the Steelmen discovered as Stuart Kettlewell revitalised their season last term.
His short-term contract expired at the end of the campaign, and the longer the summer went on, the more it seemed that he may not be returning to Lanarkshire despite the success he enjoyed in his brief spell at Fir Park.
That speculation over his future was finally brought to an end when he penned a two-year contract earlier this month, and he has explained that his decision was driven by the environment at Fir Park bringing out the best in him, and the promise of what lies ahead for Kettlewell’s team.
"It's good to be back, I'm happy I'm here and looking to kick on,” Casey said.
"I had a few options, but six months is a short stint here and I wanted to give it a right go and see what we can do as a team.
"I had options, but this is the one I wanted the most. It took longer than I wanted but I kept busy over the summer and got 90 minutes in against Queen's Park which I'm happy with.
"We are going to have to work hard, we obviously lost a few key players from last year but we've got quality coming in and get things going together as a team.
"I liked the team culture the manager and staff and obviously the players. That was one of the big things. The fans were brilliant too.
"The pitch is brilliant, there's a lot of positives. It's a good club to be at.
"I've been all around the place but I wanted to give this a try. It's very close to home just being from Ireland. I enjoyed my time here.
"The whole team was brilliant last year, but that was last season. We need to look forward and push on.
"It's a fresh start, we've obviously got cup game next week and then it's Dundee in the league so we obviously want to be ready for that."
Motherwell’s win over Queen’s Park on Saturday courtesy of Jon Obika’s deflected first-half strike came off the back of a less than vintage performance, but the three points leaves them in pole position to qualify from League Cup Group G, sitting three points clear of East Fife at the top of the table.
It is an altogether different story for the visitors, who now have gleaned just one point from their opening two matches despite plenty of plaudits for their style of play under new manager Robin Veldman.
The Dutchman though has plenty of disciples of his total football doctrine within the Queen’s squad, with striker Ruari Paton among those raving about his coaching methods.
They didn’t quite have the cutting edge to go with their pretty passing on Saturday, but Paton is sure that will come in time.
"It was frustrating,” Paton said.
“I thought we had some nice stuff but we didn't have the clear cut chances for myself from a selfish point of view and the team. Saying that, we did have a few chances and could've scored.
"You can be too nice, but you can be too brash as well. It's finding that fine line, the nice stuff has to be effective and you need that ruthless edge of scoring goals because that's what wins you games. Hopefully we can bring the football side and the goals as well.
"The manager's wealth of football knowledge is scary. It's very, very different. It's the opposite of the standard way of British coaching. It's about learning, some of the stuff he says to me, I'm going to have to get used to this.
“People say 'trust the manager' but I actually do. You can see the good stuff, it's definitely nicer to watch than some grounds when they are just kicking the ball away from each other.
“The goals will come, I'm not worried about that.”
