Andy Halliday reveals the real inspiration behind Motherwell celebration vs Hibs as role change sparks winner

He got it tight from Hibs supporters - and that just made Andy Halliday’s Motherwell winner even sweeter.

The experienced midfielder doesn’t find himself in the good books of supporters at Easter Road after previous stints at Rangers and city rivals Hearts. They goaded him during Motherwell’s match in Leith on Saturday but Halliday had the last laugh as he netted the decisive goal in a 2-1 Premiership win.

It keeps momentum rolling in ML1, with the victory a sixth in seven from games across all competitions. Halliday celebrated the goal - his first since joining the club permanently from Hearts - with a knee slide and point to the turf. That sparked speculation it was a nod to former Rangers teammate Alfredo Morelos.

Instead, his days in Gorgie proved the subject of celebration scrutiny. When asked if the knee slide looked like a replica of his celebration from scoring a double for Hearts two-and-a-half-years ago in a 3-1 derby success over Hibs and if it was intentional, the midfielder said: “It was intentional to be completely honest with you.

“It’s all in good jest. I know any time I play against Hibs or a couple of other teams I am going to take a bit of stick. If you are a professional football player you need to expect that at times. You always look to get these wee nuggets when you can to give a bit back.

“It’s all in good jest and hopefully it is taken that way. It is good to get the bragging rights for Motherwell at the end of the day.”

The goal came off the back of one of centre-back Kofi Balmer’s gigantic throw-ins. Halliday timed his run perfectly to bury it in the bottom corner but admits he wasn’t even supposed to be in that position to score, pouncing on Nectar Triantis’ red card for Hibs. He explained: “We all know what a weapon is to have not just a long throw but that, I don’t know what that is, that’s not a long throw to me but that is extra long!

“I felt the ones Kofi threw beforehand, he didn’t get all of it. It’s actually not my job to get in there for the long throw, it’s me who secures the edge of the box for second balls that come out. But Hibs had gone down to 10 men and I noticed they were short in terms of who they were marking in the box. I said to Lennon to secure the edge of the box as I was going to make a late dart and it was lucky in the sense that it was the one that Kofi did get a hold of as Hibs were set towards the front post and it goes over them. I gambled, made a good bit of contact and scored.”

Halliday reckons the team didn’t play to their full potential in the first half. They got in though at half-time level, and that provided a platform for coming out to win the game in the second half. He said: “I enjoyed that at the end. Didn't enjoy the first half as much. I think we have set the standard in the dressing room from the get-go this season. Places we want to achieve domestically, in cup competitions and leagues. I think we have started to show some consistency in our game but I feel we fell a bit short of that in the first half.

“Felt we were a wee bit passive and tried to get after Hibs’ midfield early on, but gave up too much width. If you give decent players that much time on the ball they will put you under pressure and I think Hibs did that in the first half. I don’t think we were as clean as we’d like to be in possession either and we adjusted a couple of things at at half-time and I thought it was night and day in terms of performance. We were really good in possession and it felt like numerous chances in the second half to get goals. We are just delighted to come to a tough place to play and get three points.

Motherwell head into the international break fourth in the table. Halliday reckons the defensive side of the game improving is a factor in why the club sit pretty in the top half, with a Premier Sports Cup semi-final vs Rangers to look forward to.

He added: “I feel last season we were a really entertaining team to watch. But as players, we don’t want to be, we want to just win games. We don’t want to concede the second-most goals and score the most goals outside the Old Firm, we are just interested in winning football games.

“A big part to be that team, we had to be a lot better defensively, that is as a unit. I felt the work we put in as a full playing squad out of possession is starting to pay dividends. I think we’ve been really hard to beat in all games this season. I thought the second half we were outstanding.”