Motherwell manager Graham Alexander insists he was “always confident” his side would see off Morton in the Scottish Cup – despite needing a late, late winner to get past the Championship side.
The Steelmen needed extra time to beat the Cappielow side for the second season in a row thanks to Kevin van Veen’s penalty equaliser and Liam Donnelly’s late strike.
While it took until the death for Motherwell to take the lead for the first time, Alexander thinks his side dominated the tie against ‘Ton – asking his players “not to panic” despite being 1-0 down at half time in extra time.
“It was a typical cup tie. I thought we played well and created a lot of chances,” Alexander said.
“We dominated, but we knew Morton were a well-coached, organised and motivated team who were going to be hard to break down and they were exactly that.
“But I felt we just couldn’t find that final touch, and their keeper made some excellent saves.
“It was about how long we had left to come back and we didn’t have that long.
“We had 15 minutes and we hadn’t managed to get that goal in the previous 105 minutes so we knew time was against us.
“We asked the players not to panic in extra time half time because we felt that we would have that extra bit of quality to at least get an equaliser and maybe a winner and we’ve done both.
“I am always confident in my players.
“I thought we showed Morton the right respect, we competed hard and worked hard, but we were just done by a counter-attack and a sucker punch.
“But we found the courage and character to dig ourselves out of it.”
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