Motherwell are
guaranteed to finish in the top half of the table six games ahead of the league
split.
The season defining achievement
was confirmed when Dundee United failed to beat Aberdeen on Tuesday
evening. Motherwell’s total of fifty
points cannot be matched by United who sit in seventh with a theoretical
maximum two short of the Steelmen.
It is an outstanding accomplishment by a team reconstructed over the summer break under the guidance of a manager who was appointed in the middle of June.
Jens Berthel Askou
brought with him a style of football that has thrilled, excited and mesmerised
fans inside Fir Park and beyond. He converted
players more used to the traditional long range Scottish approach into a group
happy to play a positive passing game.
He introduced half a dozen imports eager to make their way under the
Danish coach. He even has a goalkeeper playing an as an auxiliary sweeper.
The initial target
every season is to ensure top flight status.
Now the target has to be a European spot. The team has amassed twenty clean sheets, earned
a goal difference of +27, lost only three of twenty seven league fixtures, and a
five point lead (with a game in hand) over fifth placed Hibs.
The team is due an extra
special welcome when they emerge from the Fir Park tunnel on Saturday and fans would
be well advised to check the expiry dates on their passports.
