Motherwell entertain Peterhead at Fir Park on Tuesday as the group stage of the Premier Sports Cup continues.
There’s always special feeling at the first home game of the season as fans return to the old stadium. The pitch will be perfect and there will be a few innovations to offer talking points. A win for the Steelmen will round off a nice summer evening.
The visitors lost their opener to Morton in a 2-4 encounter at Balmoor Stadium. Co-manager Jordan Brown expressed disappointment at the manner of his team’s defeat. In particular he felt the loss of four goals. Niall McGinn was a late addition to their squad and made a ten minute appearance from the bench. We can expect more on Tuesday.
Peterhead were promoted from League 2 last season and the core of the teams remains. Striker Oliver Colloty and substitute Sebastian Ross scored against the Championship side and the ‘Well defence (which didn’t look too assured) will have to be alert.
Just like the visiting manager, Jens Berthel Askou recognised that his first competitive game did not produce the desired result. He was able to give four of his new signings some game time and setup his preferred shape.
The four man defence with the ‘keeper stepping up as an auxiliary looked uncertain at times. Spells of possession in the centre of the park was rarely challenged by their lower division opponents but opportunities for the front two were rare.
Clearly, more work needs to be done.
The dropping of a point in the mini-league may not be critical but it reduces the tolerance for further slips. A win on Tuesday is essential: 3-0 will do nicely.