Motherwell star says Viaplay Cup defeat won't dent confidence, while on impressive run

Callum Slattery says Motherwell are hurting from their Viaplay Cup exit against St Mirren, but insists it won’t dent their confidence.

The Steelmen were on a run of only three defeats from 21 games under Stuart Kettlewell, and 11 undefeated, before losing 1-0 in Paisley yesterday.

Caolan Boyd-Munce’s eighth-minute wonder-strike Motherwell spinning out of the competition and Saints in to the quarter-finals.

Midfielder Slattery says it’s still raw for them, but they’ll bounce back in time for Saturday’s clash at home to Kilmarnock.

He said: “We definitely go into the Kilmarnock game with confidence – we go into every game with confidence.

“I think that’s three defeats in about 21 games, so we can’t get deflated from it.

“We can’t go into any game and think ‘we’ve lost the last one’ because that’s not been the case since this manager has come in.

“We need to pick our heads up quickly, which we will do.

“It’s disappointing, but we have to look to the next game very quickly, and that’s the league one on Saturday.

“It’s a good opportunity for us.

“This is going to hurt, but we need to pick ourselves up, quickly.”

Slattery felt that Motherwell dominated the second half, but it just wouldn’t fall for them and they didn’t test Saints keeper Zach Hemming enough.

He said: “It’s definitely not the result we were looking for.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game, coming here, and by the way both teams set up, I think we knew it was going to be a tight game, with one goal in it, and that was the case.

“I thought some of our defending was a bit sloppy in the first half, and that has cost us the goal.

“But in the second half there were opportunities there, we were on top for the large part, and just couldn’t put it in the back of