Motherwell must halt slump now to salvage season, admits Graham Alexander

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander called for his players to show their character after their long wait for a league win continued.

Well were held to a 1-1 draw by a Dundee team missing 10 players after being hit by Covid-19 issues and injuries.

The Fir Park result made it 10 games without picking up three points and they fell down to eighth in the cinch Premiership.

Paul McMullan’s early opener, after slack play from Stephen O’Donnell, means Motherwell have not opened the scoring in a game since Boxing Day.

They were soon level through Joe Efford but never really built on their equaliser, and Dundee looked the more threatening team after the break until Alexander made his first changes by bringing on Callum Slattery and Ross Tierney in the 77th minute.

Dundee held out and the home support vented their frustrations at the final whistle, although many had been doing that for much of the game.

Motherwell were leapfrogged in the table on goal difference by Ross County, who were 13 points adrift of the Steelmen going into the winter break.

But they still have a chance to make it a season to remember, with next Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against Hibernian followed by games against St Johnstone, St Mirren and Livingston before the league split.

Alexander said: “We are in a moment where you have to try and look up instead of down and feel sorry about yourself, get your chin off your chest and look at the opportunities in front of us. We have got opportunities in the league and the cup.

“Come the end of the season we could be looking back thinking ‘we dug ourselves out of a bit of a hole and really showed what we are as characters and people’.

“That’s what it’s about right now, it’s not about being a good footballer,