Motherwell offer goalkeepers Gillespie and Carson new contracts

Motherwell have opened contract talks with goalkeepers Mark Gillespie and Trevor Carson.

Manager Stephen Robinson is keen to get the pair signed up on new deals and extend their battle to be Motherwell's number one.

Both Gillespie and Carson are out of contract at the end of the season and Robinson believes it is important to get key players signed up on extended deals early.

Gillespie, who joined from Carlisle last summer, has impressed since replacing Carson as first choice in December after the Northern Ireland international was ruled out for an extended period after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis.

The 31-year-old has now recovered and is pushing Gillespie for a starting spot after earning an international recall this week.

Robinson, whose side host Hibernian in the Ladbrokes Premiership on Saturday, said: We know what a very good goalkeeper Trevor is, to the extent I've offered Trevor and Mark Gillespie new contracts.

That's what we're trying to do, we're trying to build the squad, keep the squad getting strong so as well as bringing other players in we have to make sure we secure the players that we've got.

So the two goalkeepers, plus some outfield players, we're trying to start discussions with early on and keep building on what we're doing.

I'm very keen (to keep them), if you don't have competition then you'll never go anywhere, people become complacent.

We've got brilliant competition for the number one jersey and there is nothing between the two goalkeepers.

So whether they sign that or not is up to them, we've put that in front of them. I think it would be a real positive if we were able to get both signed and keep the goalkeeping department strong.

We've done a lot of transfer activity early on and it's important we secure people that are here as well.''

Robinson is still hopeful of bringing in a further new addition before the transfer window closes on Monday.

He said: It has to be someone that will either be in the starting 11 or really push people that are in the starting 11.

I'm not just going to bring in people to make up the numbers. I'd rather use the money to secure people that are here, put contract offers to other people.

Potentially we could have one in one Monday.''

Meanwhile, striker James Scott feared he had done something wrong before finding out about his first Scotland Under-21 call-up, for the qualifiers with San Marino and Croatia.

The 19-year-old said: I'm delighted, to get called up for the Under-21s is unbelievable, probably my best achievement.

I didn't know but then found out on Twitter. I got a lot of notifications and was wondering what was happening, I thought I'd done something wrong.

It's unbelievable, my family are so proud of me.''

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