The Motherwell manager, Jens Berthel Askou, ruffled a few feathers with his comments just before kickoff at Livingston yesterday.
The Dane appeared to suggest that the very DNA of the Lanarkshire club needed changing if it was to properly embrace the sophisticated passing game he had introduced.
While Berthel Askou has been widely praised for the quality of his team’s football, it was put to him that they had won only one league match all season.
‘There are things to improve,’ he replied. ‘We’re trying to build a new identity and a new approach on top of 140 years of football history at this club. You don’t do that overnight.’
The implication seemed to be that Motherwell had only ever played basic football and that breaking the habit of a lifetime would not bring immediate results.
It was enough to irk club legend Stephen Craigan, who is part of a proud history that includes six major trophies and the swashbuckling Ancell Babes of the late 1950s.
Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou presided over a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Livingston
Elijah Just celebrates after scoring the late goal that secured all three points for Motherwell
Livingston boss David Martindale is under pressure as his side sit bottom of the Premiership
‘I think it’s a little bit disrespectful,’ said Craigan. ‘I hear the word identity and philosophy thrown about but at some stage winning has to become a part of that.’
In fairness, Berthel Askou wouldn’t disagree, and was perhaps guilty only of choosing his words clumsily in a time-honoured plea for patience.
As it turned out, he needed just 90 minutes to show that there may be substance, as well as style, in this Motherwell team. While the football against Livingston wasn’t up to their recent standards, they grew into the game and emerged with all three points.
A penalty goal by Apostolos Stamatelopoulos cancelled out Jeremy Bokila’s first-half spot-kick before Elijah Just netted a stoppage-time winner.
It was a timely riposte to Craigan and those like him who are instinctively suspicious of managers whose vision is to play football for the purists.
It’s not that success isn’t Berthel Askou’s priority. Rather, he believes that it can be achieved with a cultured playing style, even at clubs with limited resources.
It won’t always be possible, but the aim is to try. And, for now at least, that is going down a treat with Motherwell fans, who are revelling in the novelty of brave, adventurous football.
The irony is that, as they climb the table, bottom place is occupied by Livingston, whose under-pressure manager, David Martindale, is one of the most pragmatic in the game. Make of that what you will.
