Motherwell progress in the League Cup after fightback against Edinburgh City

Published 26th Jul 2017

Motherwell players were praised for showing character by manager Stephen Robinson after they came from behind against League Two Edinburgh City in the League Cup.

The Fir Park side go into the second round of the Betfred Cup as Group F winners after Elliot Frear struck an 89th minute winner.

Ashley Grimes opened the scoring for the part-timers in the 69th minute.

However the Steelmen dominated most of the the match.

Substitute Chris Cadden led the fightback with an equaliser five minutes later and then Frear settled it late on.

Robinson said: "I have to give credit to the boys as it was a really sticky pitch and we dug in.

"We put about 50 crosses into the box so if you're not going to score two goals out of 50 crosses then you're in trouble.

"We had loads and loads of chances and it was one of those nights where we could have killed the game off in the first five seconds of the game.

"We will play better than this but credit to Edinburgh who made it difficult, but we got what we probably deserved in the end.''

City manager Gary Jardine was proud of the effort his players.

He said: "When we scored I felt we deserved it and it was a cool finish from Ashley Grimes but then I started looking at my watch.

"I didn't see us losing it and told my players I didn't want this to be a game of damage limitation so I was delighted the way they set about what is a good Premiership side.

"We are a part-time side and the boys had been working at their jobs during the day so we dipped at the end and that was always going to happen."