Shane Blaney lifts lid on Motherwell dressing room split that has UNITED Steelmen squad

Shane Blaney says the English corner of Motherwell’s dressing room has been getting louder and louder with every passing Euros victory for Gareth Southgate’s side.

But even though the Irish defender hopes Spain finally silence the Three Lions in tomorrow’s Euro 2024 final he admits the banter has been ideal for gelling the new-look Steelmen together. A week in the Netherlands for a pre-season training camp coincided with England qualifying from the group stages and since then they’ve squeezed past Slovakia, Switzerland and the Dutch to reach tomorrow’s showpiece.

It’s given the St George’s Cross contingent at Fir Park plenty of ammunition with Callum Slattery and Aston Oxborough joined by new signings Zach Robinson, Steve Seddon and Kofi Balmer in shouting about football coming home.

Asked who he’d be supporting on Sunday, Blaney said: “Oh, jeez, that's a question. No, I'll be looking for Spain to win, aye! None of the English lads are shy, put it that way. I would say Slattery is probably well up there.

“But they've been good. We watched a couple of games out in Holland. So there were a couple of nail-biting moments. When Bellingham scored that overhead kick, there was a lot of loud celebrating. But no, it's been great having the Euros for us out there and throughout pre-season, watching the games together. It's been another good way of gelling together and stuff.”

England may have deserved their win over the Dutch in the end but Blaney couldn’t believe the VAR decision to award them a spot kick after Denzel Dumfries was penalised for trying to block Harry Kane’s shot. He said: “I couldn't believe myself watching it. It's just the way it is at the minute. Some decisions are mad but you just have to get on with it.

“I