In years gone by Motherwell have had their share of hard men, midfield enforcers who had a steely side to their character and were not afraid to give the opposition some rough treatment. Tom Forsyth and Stuart McLaren knew how to stop their opponents in the 1970s and more recently the late Jamie Dolan stood for no nonsense when we were out of possession. Colin O'Neil and Simo Valikari were another pair who were no strangers to the referee's notebook. More recently Maros Klimpl and Bob Malcolm filled that role.
A younger Hammell gets stuck in
Speaking after Saturday’s game Hammell said, “I know what the manager means. We are maybe a bit too nice. That is something we need to work on. We all like getting stuck in, but maybe we need to do a little bit more of that, especially when we are up against it. The manager spoke to us after the game and told us he wants us to be a bit nastier with each other.”
Did he interpret Brown’s remarks correctly? The plan, surely, is to give the opposition some stick rather than encourage harsh words inside our dressing room. Thoughts of frequent spats between Philliben and Dykstra come to mind!
It is strange how different managers see the physical side of the game. One of Jim Gannon’s tenets was that the concession of a free kick gave the opposition a chance to build an attack or, worse, have a direct hot on goal. Players should resist the temptation to be over-physical and as a result our crime count fell. It seems out of character for soft spoken, mild mannered Craig brown to be taking the other standpoint.