No celebrations from Steven Hammell as he gets down to business at Motherwell

Steven Hammell feels so ready for the task of leading Motherwell that he barely took time to savour the realisation of his long-standing ambition.

The 40-year-old has been named Graham Alexander’s successor on a two-year contract after taking charge of two matches on an interim basis.

Hammell became academy director at Fir Park in January 2018 immediately after playing his 583rd game for Motherwell, and feels his experience has prepared him for the manager’s job.

The former Scotland left-back was the unanimous choice following interviews of three candidates.

“I have been preparing for something like this for a long, long time,” he said in a club video. “I have been in charge of the academy for five years, which is a huge responsibility at the club.

“I have been on the pitch for a couple of years now, daily, with the group in and around the reserve group integrating with the first team.

“I feel it’s something I am ready to do. The interview process was the way I wanted it to be. It wasn’t just going to be given to me because of my role at the club, it was a very thorough and robust process.

“To find out after all that the club believe in my message and what I see for the club going forward gives me great confidence.

“It was a strange one, I was absolutely delighted, maybe for about five seconds, and then I understand exactly what’s needing to be done.

“Then the enormity of the job comes in. There’s a lot of work to do, quickly, and I am just looking to get started as quickly as possible.”

Hammell faces the ongoing task of lifting a squad who have won six games in 2022, one under him, and recently suffered two morale-sapping defeats by Sligo Rovers in the Europa Conference League.

He quickly identified issues needing