Motherwell’s Richard Tait sees cup final as unfinished business

MOTHERWELL stand-in skipper Richard Tait saluted his team-mates for beating Aberdeen.

Now the 28-year-old wants a repeat performance against Celtic or Rangers in the Scottish Cup Final.

Tait, deputising as captain yesterday for the suspended Carl McHugh, believes the Old Firm teams will fear taking on Motherwell at Hampden on May 19.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted with our performance against Aberdeen. I think we beat them up from start to finish.

“They did that to us when they beat us 2-0 in the league and we weren’t going to let it happen again.

“From the start we put it behind them, turned them towards their own goal and they just couldn’t cope with it.

“We definitely fancy ourselves in the final. We pushed Celtic close in the League Cup Final and this is one we really want to win.

“It doesn’t matter who we get. We have a real belief in our ability.

“They’re both massive clubs, so we’ll just wait and see who we get. It will be interesting.

“We’re not content with just getting to a final. We want to go and win it.

“We tasted defeat last time and we don’t want that again. We’ll be well up for it on the day.

“I think there’s a feeling of unfinished business after the way we lost to Celtic.

“You could see that in the way we played. We fought for one another and went right to the end.”

Although Tait admits the Steelmen make the most of their physical attributes, he insists there’s more to their success.

He hopes their ability to play football is overlooked by the opposition.

“A lot of people concentrate on the fact that we’re a physical team, quite a rough team,” said Tait.

“But we play to our strengths and when we can get the ball down we can show some quality, mainly in the final third. When we stick our foot on it, we can play. We know that ourselves.

“If everyone else thinks we’re physical, great.”

Tait was central to Motherwell’s opening goal in their 3-0 win.

Aberdeen were adamant he handled the ball, but the defender believes they deserved a little slice of good fortune.

He said: “It hit me on the shoulder at the first goal. Maybe it was the way I leaned, I don’t know. I’ve not seen it back.

“I just carried on playing. You always get told as a boy to play to the whistle. Luckily the ref played on and we scored. We were due a break after what happened the last time at Hampden.”

On-loan striker Nadir Ciftci admits he will have mixed feelings about today’s Old Firm semi-final.

He said: “I am still at Celtic and they are still the club for me, but, if I want to get to the final, then I need Rangers to win. I want to play in the final, but I won’t be sitting there wanting Celtic to lose.

“I just hope it is a good game and after that we will see if we play Celtic or Rangers.”