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{ McCall's side won their second match in five days
Motherwell manager Stuart McCall hopes his side can continue the positive approach he feels has contributed to two straight wins.

The 1-0 victory over Hamilton followed a midweek triumph at Aberdeen, with St Mirren and Celtic visiting Fir Park over the next eight days.

"Three points (against Hamilton) is huge," McCall told BBC Scotland.

"We've got to be as positive again on Wednesday night (against St Mirren) and get at them again."

Having had indifferent results at the start of his Motherwell reign, McCall's side are starting to find their form and are well in the mix for top six places.

"You take nothing for granted just because you're at home against a side below you, it showed (against Hamilton) just how difficult it can be," McCall said.

"Teams like Hamilton and St Mirren are fighting for their lives down at the bottom there and we've got an aim as well.

"The game on Wednesday comes and then Celtic come on Sunday so two home games to look forward to and St Mirren will be a big one again."

Of the win over Hamilton, McCall said: "I'm absolutely delighted. I thought we fully merited a victory.

"We knew what type of game it was going to be; always tough, even though Hamilton are at the bottom, they don't lose lots of goals.

"Their keeper's pulled off two or three excellent stops, our keeper's not had anything to do. I'm not saying the results wasn't in doubt but we fully merited a victory.

"Overall, if you look at chances and possession of the ball and everything, we were the most prominent side without a doubt."

Motherwell's winning goal came from the penalty spot, John Sutton converting after he was pulled down in the box by Martin Canning.

"My first reaction was that Sutty had rolled the boy and the boy clawed him to the ground," added McCall.

"From where I was I thought it was a penalty, Sutty says it was definitely a penalty kick.

"We're pleased that he stepped up and slotted it in the corner. I was confident in Sutty and delighted for him to take that."

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Labels: continue, looks, McCall, Motherwell, Sport, Stuart, winning

{ IT WAS just like watching Craig Brown's Motherwell last night - and that's something which will have pained the former Scotland manager as he sat in the Pittodrie dug-out and suffered at the hands of his old club in their first meeting with Aberdeen since his December switch.
The success for his opposite number Stuart McCall was as deserved as it was unexpected on the back of their 6-0 thrashing at Ibrox, although Aberdeen may point to red-card shown to captain Paul Hartley with the scores tied at 1-1 for their subsequent demise.

However, even before that player imbalance, for which Hartley should look at himself rather than the actions of the referee Steven McLean or booked opponent Keith Lasley against whom he crazily retaliated, the visitors seemed more constructive and threatening.

Their intent came good when Jamie Murphy raced forward and steered a low shot into the corner after being put in on goal by a misjudged header from Aberdeen defender Zander Diamond.

Until last night, the Fir Park faithful and their club seemed to have been badly missing Brown, as exemplified by the ragged nature of their performance against Rangers at the weekend. Last night, though, marked a pretty remarkable turnaround a mere three days on from that debacle.

Even losing a goal scored by Sone Aluko only two minutes in, McCall's men demonstrated commendable courage to open up and play passes and in so doing seize the initiative. Credit was due to their to manager for that, his selection proving surprisingly adventurous with Murphy in the hole behind a front two of John Sutton and Francis Jeffers, who scored Motherwell's equaliser. The tactics paid off with McCall picking up his second league win since succeeding Brown.

This was a fixture which should have been Brown's first in charge at Pittodrie but the winter weather put paid to that. Nevertheless, while the best part of two months have passed since then, he still found time to mention his debt of gratitude to the Fir Park club in his programme notes, where he said he was "led to believe we achieved the best record of any Motherwell management team during John Boyle's (12-year] reign, and by some distance".

Brown also made that point in pre-match briefings, no doubt to give any travelling fans who intended to taunt him for his treachery something to think about. He needn't have worried.

On a stinking, squally night, precious few travelled up and those who did were too cold, too drookit and, for the opening stages of this game, too down to give him the treatment meted out to the last manager to swap Lanarkshire for Grampian, Mark McGhee.

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Labels: Aberdeen, Brown, Craig, haunt, Motherwell, return, Scotsman

{

Globe and Mail

Motherwell manager Stuart McCall proud but frustrated BBC Sport Proud but bitterly disappointed was how Stuart McCall summed up his first semi-final defeat as Motherwell manager after they went down 2-1 to Rangers. "All I asked of them was to give a good account of themselves. To come off the back pitch as good as ... Rangers 2 Motherwell 1: match reportTelegraph.co.uk Naismith relishing Old Firm fixture flurryYahoo! Eurosport UK Rangers 2 - 1 MotherwellBBC News The Press Association -stv.tv -Goal.com all 119 news articles »

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Labels: frustrated, manager, McCall, Motherwell, proud, Sport, Stuart