Kevin van Veen suffered a sleepless night after Motherwell tossed away a two-goal lead against 10-man Kilmarnock but is wide awake to the challenge of trying to shock Rangers as he looks to end Michael Beale’s perfect start to life as Light Blues boss.
The Dutchman was fuming as he labelled the Steelmen “unprofessional” following the draw against the Ayrshiremen at Fir Park which leaves Steven Hammell’s men with one win from their last nine in a miserable run that has also seen them lose six. Now they head to Ibrox on Wednesday to face a rejuvenated Rangers under Beale, who has won three on the spin since leaving QPR to succeed Giovanni van Bronckhorst. It’s a huge challenge for the Lanarkshire men but Van Veen said: “They are expansive so there will be spaces to exploit. When we are on our game we can surprise anyone in the league.
“I'd be lying if I said I slept easy after the Kilmarnock game but hopefully we can shock Rangers on Wednesday and get a result. It's going to be a different challenge. It's a big stadium, in front of a big crowd, against a really good team. We need to be better or at our best for going to Ibrox on Wednesday. It's hard because I'm an emotional person and I'll still be angry but we need to get our noses in the right direction because it's a long season.”
Van Veen and Callum Slattery struck and Motherwell looked to be sailing towards three points when Killie midfielder Alan Power was shown a straight red card but Paul McGinn’s own goal and ex-Well man Liam Polworth’s goal saw the points shared.
Van Veen said: “It was unbelievable. Unfortunately, every single time the opposition go a man down they punish us. It happened last season against Ross County and it's still happening and it's unprofessional. It felt like a defeat.
"I'm just being deadly honest. I know I sound a bit negative and I know we got a point from the match but in the position we were in we should never have drawn.
"We were cruising and I obviously blame myself. But I hope the other players look in the mirror and think about what the problem was.”
READ NEXT
