'First class' Wolves loanee and midfielder earn Motherwell praise as 1 thing clear about looming Rangers match
A Wolves loanee is amongst those praised ahead of Motherwell’s latest challenge in the Premiership.
Stephen Frail insists Motherwell will not have eyes wandering towards Hampden and Rangers when squaring off against Dundee United - as a Wolves loanee and midfielder come in for praise.
The club have a major week ahead of them, sitting fifth in the Premiership and travelling to the team one place above them on Wednesday night, Dundee United. Then at the weekend, they face Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final to cap off a busy seven days which started last Sunday with a 3-0 home defeat vs Celtic.
Anticipation is building for the semi-final but the squad will not have their thoughts on a trip to the national stadium just yet, according to Frail. In an update on the squad, the assistant boss said: “One or two wee issues from the game, nothing major. Everyone who was available from Sunday’s game will be ready to go on Wednesday night, minus Tony Watt and Liam Gordon. Much the same as it was on Sunday.
“This is a huge game and we want to make sure we win it. We have started the league, like Dundee United, well. Sunday will take care of ourselves. Our team selection is nothing in mind about Sunday, all our focus and team selection has nothing in mind about Sunday. It’s based on Wednesday’s game, we aren’t looking ahead to Sunday at the minute.
“You could end up start prioritising Sunday and we don’t want to. We will prioritise Sunday after the game and our focus is fully on Dundee United. Winning the games in the Premiership is difficult and we need to make sure we are fully concentrated and focused to do that tomorrow night.”
Two players who made their first starts for the team against Celtic were Marvin Kaleta and Tom Sparrow. Wolves loanee Kaleta impressed in his role at right-back while there were some nice moments of play from Sparrow, who joined the Motherwell midfield from Stoke City in the summer. Frail says both are in with a shout of more minutes at Tannadice.
He said: “Marvin has come in on loan from Wolves and we have seen his quality since he’s arrived. Such has been the form of Stephen O’Donnell in that area, he’s not really had a chance. We got the chance to put him in on Sunday and he’s been ready for weeks.
“We thought he did really well. He’s got strength, power, pace, quality on the ball, Tom was unfortunate he missed out on a game, he got injured just before the Hibs game and was put back a couple of weeks. He’s been great since he came in, just finding it hard to get in the team.
“He came in and put in a positive performance. Both of them will be in contention for tomorrow night. They are showing it every day in training, the two of them are first class in terms of everything they do on the training pitch. Hopefully they can build on what they did on Sunday.”