‘We will use that as our motivation’: Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson hopes to prove doubters wrong against Rangers

MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson has enjoyed proving the doubters wrong so far this season – and is determined to continue doing so in his side’s Betfred Cup semi-final against Rangers.

Robinson has made sure his players are aware of some of the promotional material for the televised Hampden clash, which focuses on Motherwell’s opponents and a potential meeting with Celtic in the final.

And he has urged his team to make sure people take notice of them on Sunday.

“According to everybody else, people have already got it as an Old Firm final,” he said. “We are out to prove that wrong.

“I’ve seen some clips and tickets for sale for Rangers in the final, so people have obviously written us off already. That’s fine, we can deal with that. But within our dressing room and our club we firmly believe we can get a result.

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“We’re not playing, we are not coming to the game apparently. So we will use that as our motivation. I pay little attention to what people say but if you can use it as a motivational tool… Players read stuff, don’t they? I don’t think I need to motivate the players but if that’s given them a little bit of extra motivation, then great.”

Motherwell have already confounded expectations this season by winning 11 of their 15 matches, including a 3-0 quarter-final victory over Aberdeen, and sit one point off Rangers in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

“We got written off by a lot of people at the start of the season who didn’t have a lot of knowledge about the players we were signing, so that was a strange one,” former Oldham boss Robinson said.

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“But we haven’t surprised ourselves, because when you work hard and bring a good bunch of players together then you’ve got every chance of being successful.

“We have tried to get a mindset where losing doesn’t become a habit – winning and not losing games becomes a habit. And when you get into that, you’ve got a chance.

“We are well aware of what we are as a football club. We don’t have 50,000 people coming to watch us, we are one of the smaller clubs in the division, but we are a good club, a well-organised and well-run club.

“And if we can keep that belief going, then who knows?”