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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Andy McGilvray

Motherwell boss: We were too safe against Livi, but half-time rollicking solved that

Motherwell boss Stevie Hammell inspired his side's 1-0 win over Livingston after giving them a half-time rollicking.

That paid dividends in the second half as Kevin van Veen's penalty gave them back-to-back Premiership wins as they soared up to third in the table.

It was helped by sub Dylan Bahamboula receiving two yellow cards inside a three-minute spell, leaving Livi down to 10 men for the last 13 minutes.

But the damage had been done by then, and Motherwell ran out 1-0 winners, though Hammell said he did have to be brutally honest at the interval.

Hammell said: "I would have put every attacking sub on the pitch until we saw more of a threat in the forward areas.

"We weren't doing that enough. It was fine in front, but middle-to-final third we weren't causing them enough problems.

Kevin van Veen netted a penalty winner for Motherwell (SNS Group)

"We scored at a good time and I thought we saw the game out well. I don't think Liam Kelly had a save to make in the whole game.

"At half-time it was one of those moments where we had to be honest.

"It's a good culture, a good environment we're creating but we need to be demanding of each other and what we saw in the first half, everything was too safe.

"We were moving the ball fine, but we weren't causing them nearly enough problems.

“We told them we needed to make changes if it didn’t improve, and it didn’t, or not enough, anyway.

"When we made the changes we felt they had a real impact.

“We got the effect we wanted in the second half and I felt like we deserved to win that game.

“Joe Efford was excellent, a real threat, and he’s starting to get his confidence again. He’s hopefully going to be a big player for us this season."

However, Hammell was pleased with the second half display and the final result.

He said: "It's good, we're in a good place now, considering where we were three weeks ago.

"It's positive, we want to maintain that, but it's going to require a lot of hard work.

Motherwell players celebrate their win over Livingston (SNS Group)

"Today wasn't perfect, but when you see them at 95. 96 minutes still trying to score and then when the final whistle goes they drop to the floor.

"That shows you how much they want it and their physical capacity to actually do it for that length of time so that was really pleasing."

Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.

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