Kevin van Veen says Motherwell’s 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock has to be a wake-up call that they haven’t achieved anything yet this season.
And he says the Rugby Park defeat is a massive three points thrown away, if the Steelmen want to achieve anything this season.
The Dutchman opened the scoring inside 14 minutes, latching onto Blair Spittal’s inch-perfect pass and torturing Lewis Mayo before clipping a shot past Sam Walker with the outside of his foot for his fourth goal of the season.
It was a brilliant goal from Motherwell’s point of view, but van Veen was annoyed that his side didn’t capitalise on it, as Danny Armstrong slipped a shot past Liam Kelly to equalise, before Ash Taylor powered a header into the net from former Fir Park favourite Liam Polworth’s free kick.
In between those goals, van Veen set up sub Ross Tierney with Walker saving the Irishman’s shot; while he’s not blaming the youngster for not scoring, Kevin is pointing out that Motherwell had opportunities they didn’t take.
And he says defender Ben Chrisene hitting the bar in the first half should have been a warning of things to come from Killie.
He said: “We got a lot of warnings in the first half, we got away with a bit there and personally it wasn’t good enough.
“Everybody spoke about coming out in the second half and being different, and we didn’t.
“It’s very frustrating and painful to lose 2-1 like that. I think the two goals we conceded were really poor from us.
“Before their second goal I laid it off to Ross Tierney, and unfortunately it was a good save from the keeper, and it was a good shot from Ross, but we could have been 2-1 up there.
“We could have gone 2-1 up, 2-0 seconds later the ball’s in our goal and we’re 2-1 behind, and it’s a lesson learned for all of us.
“It’s a painful one. I think we should have at least have got away here with a point.
“Did I think we deserved all three points? I don’t think so, because I don’t think we were good enough.
“We’ve been having good results lately, but it’s a wake-up call that we’re not anywhere yet, and we need to work hard.
“I’m very p***** off and angry that we lost this game.”
Van Veen added: “If we want to achieve something you need to beat Kilmarnock and there was the perfect opportunity to do so.
“We were 1-0 up and we should be looking for 2-0 or 3-0, but we sat back and we weren’t good enough, so we got what we deserved.
“We were off the pace. All of us.
“I’m very emotional at the moment because I think if we want to achieve something this season this is a massive three points thrown away.”
With Championship side Inverness visiting on Wednesday it’s a chance for Motherwell to get back on track and reach the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final.
Van Veen hopes they can take that, but knows they must improve.
“We have to really do what we have done best of late,” he said.
“On Wednesday we need to get the noses in the right direction again to get the result, because we cannot just put this down to another bad result.
“We need to get back on track. We need to bring more, to get forward more.
“We need to put defenders on the back foot, we need to make defenders defend, and I don’t think we did that enough.
“We have to get back to it, and it’s very good that we have another game on Wednesday to turn everything back around.”
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