The 2017/18 campaign is one that lives long in the memory for Stephen Robinson -and the Motherwell boss is keen to achieve similar.
League Cup last 16 action falls Motherwell’s way tomorrow as they host St Johnstone at Fir Park, who they played last week in the league during a 1-1 draw.
Having automatically progressed to this stage after missing the group stages due to Europa League involvement, the Steelmen stand two games from Hampden.
Robinson guided the Well to two cup finals in the 17/18 campaign, including the final of this competition. In the current climate, he’s aware of the importance of a good cup run.
“We’ve obviously had that experience before and it lifts the club financially and personally and puts people into the spotlight,” said Robinson.
“We know the success that moving on in the cup competitions can bring but it’s a tough game. It would be the perfect remedy for hard times at the moment and I’m sure every club is thinking exactly the same.
“Winning football matches lifts everybody. We have had some fans to the stadium recently talking about their experiences over lockdown and the club, so we want to give them something to cheer about.”
“I don’t think home advantage counts just now, there’s no fans, so it makes it neutral. There are only two or three boys left (from the 17/18 season) so that shows the turnaround of players here.
“But the ones we have and staff we have got fantastic memories. But we want to achieve that again and I know what it does for the football club. We’ve got international footballers from that, sales from that. It brings revenue into the club at a time where that’s vital.”
Motherwell have been involved in the group stages of this competition every year since the new format was brought in, apart from this season. Robinson says it was ‘strange’ not be part of.
“It was great not to be involved, as it meant we did something right,” joked Robinson. “It was strange as we are already one game off the quarter-final and we haven’t even played a game yet.
“We usually have to navigate through those tricky games early on. What was evident away to St Johnstone is they had match practice, they were up to match speed. They were a wee bit sharper.
“We’ve been a bit stop-start with Covid and games cancelled and still not rearranged.”
On those games in-hand against Kilmarnock and St Mirren, the Well boss added: “We could have played this week because we had a free week. No doubt they will try to cram 10 games into three or four weeks when your squad is bare thin.
“It would be nice to have some form of communication on what we are doing and when we are doing it. There has been two perfect opportunities in the last three weeks to play the games so it would be nice if somebody actually told us what is happening.”