Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson confident ahead of Ibrox trip
Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson senses a fresh belief in his players ahead of their trip to face Rangers.
Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson senses a fresh belief in his players ahead of their trip to face Rangers.
Rangers have been buoyed by the arrival of new manager Pedro Caixinha and have scored 13 goals in their last three home games, while Motherwell have lost six of their last seven matches.
The Lanarkshire side have only won once at Ibrox in 20 seasons but Robinson has worked hard to instil some confidence in his players.
"I know from the previous 20 years that people won't have great expectations,'' he said. "But I expect us to go there and produce a performance.
"We have to be very careful that we are playing against a Rangers team, not against a badge and not against 50,000 people at Ibrox.
"We have reiterated that all week, that we can go and get something out of this game, we can go there and beat Rangers, and really, really believe in it. We are starting to get the players to believe in it, and we go there with confidence.''
Motherwell have fallen to late goals on their previous two visits to Govan this season before Robinson returned, but the Northern Irishman tasted a 3-1 victory there in the play-offs in 2015.
"I go back to that time and everybody wrote us off,'' he said. We were the whipping boys, Rangers had already been promoted, according to everybody else. But history shows that wasn't the case.
"I prepared the team then in a similar fashion to what we are going to do now. I don't think we go there with any fear, most definitely not.
"We go there with a real belief that the place is starting to turn around. We have got them really organised and we have got players starting to believe in each other again.''
Motherwell's injury list has subsided during the international break, although Richard Tait and Stephen McManus remain out following groin surgery. Robinson is hopeful Stephen Pearson will overcome an injury which saw him sit out training until two days before the game.