Motherwell defender Ricki Lamie says his side must believe they can beat Rangers at Ibrox – because they need to start picking up points.
The Steelmen travel to Govan this evening in ninth place in the Premiership, following Friday’s 2-2 draw with 10-man Kilmarnock, and have won just five of 17 games.
Lamie admits sometimes it hasn’t been good enough, but in other games Motherwell haven’t had the points their play deserves.
But with just five points separating them from basement side Dundee United, Lamie knows something needs to change.
“We know we’ve got the quality to pick up points, but we need to start doing it,” he said.
“We definitely believe we can go to Ibrox and cause them problems.
“Against pretty much everybody, we’ve given a good account of ourselves – it has been fine margins.
“There have only been one or two games where there has been a big deficit – even against the Old Firm it has been one or two goals here and there.
“But even if it’s one goal it’s zero points, and we need to turn that around.
“It’s going to be really difficult. A new manager has come in, and they’re on a good run, but we need to have that belief that we can compete with anybody in the league.
“If you don’t start picking up three points, you’ll find yourself in a bad position.
“It’s a competitive league, you need to be up for every single game, and Wednesday will be no different.”
Lamie says naivety and lack of a ruthless streak has cost Motherwell at times this season, and that has been frustrating.
That includes Friday night’s Fir Park clash where goals from Kevin van Veen and Callum Slattery should have had Motherwell cruising, especially when Killie captain Alan Power saw red.
But a Paul McGinn own-goal and a stunner from Liam Polworth earned a point for the Ayrshire side.
Lamie said: “When you make mistakes you’ve got to learn from them and put it to bed.
“We’ve had a look at it, we’re all professional, we know we should have done better.
“You get frustrated, because within ourselves we know there’s a lot of good stuff, but it means nothing if you’re not getting the results to match the performances.
“There have been performances that haven’t been good enough as well, but for the most part we’ve been pleased with a lot of the stuff that we’ve been doing, especially at home.
“Three or four games pop into my head straight away – Friday included – where you think we should have taken three points.
“Even away from home we’ve come away with a point sometimes and we’ve dominated the game.
“We are a bit naive at times, and that ruthlessness... there have been games where we’ve had a barrel-load of chances, and either not scored goals or we’ve taken one or two of them but conceded poor goals, so it’s those fine lines,
“But there comes a point where you need to put points on the board.”
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