Robinson eager for Motherwell to get back on track

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson will welcome back some experienced players for the visit of Celtic as he looks to get back to basics.

Robinson was frustrated that his side lost two set-piece goals and were generally outworked in defeat by Livingston on Saturday.

There is no room for slackness ahead of the visit of the Ladbrokes Premiership champions but Motherwell held Celtic twice at Fir Park last season and both Peter Hartley and Carl McHugh are available after suspension, while Andy Rose could return after recent injury problems.

Robinson said: We have been up and down this season, we've lacked consistency, and how you get that back is do the simple things well each week, what I call the free stuff in football - run further than your opponent, make sure you land on second balls.

If we go and try and outplay Celtic, the reality is we'll lose the game. History tells you that.

We've had to tweak things, we haven't been quite as physical, we haven't had people that were rattling about, we have had to put more footballers in the team due to injuries and circumstances.

If you look at our team on Saturday, Barry (Maguire) and Christian (Mbulu), two young boys, Allan Campbell and David Turnbull.

So it's important we get a bit of experience back in the team again, a bit of know-how, and get back to doing the basics better than the other team.''

Robinson's frustration over the consistency of his team is set to spark some changes during the transfer window.

The Motherwell boss brought in the likes of Liam Donnelly, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair and Conor Sammon during the summer to provide more options but he signalled a change in transfer strategy.

It'll have to be a case of trying to get people out,'' he said when asked whether he can bring players in.

There's players we have brought in, we perhaps have to move some of them on, which we'll do over the course of the next few weeks.

That's easier said than done. Once players have contracts it's not quite as easy to do that.

In the summer I strengthened our squad because our budget allowed me to.

That's something I needed to look at and perhaps some of young boys who weren't quite ready have now stepped in. David Turnbull, Allan Campbell is improving all the time. Barry Maguire came in and did OK on Saturday. Jake Hastie, who is out on loan, wasn't ready to start in the summer, he is one we may bring back because we do lack wide men.

There are young boys who have moved on which perhaps allows me to move some of the squad players out if we are able to do that and strengthen our starting XI.''

Robinson has parked contract talks with Turnbull, who has been a revelation in recent weeks.

He wants to sign for the football club, whether his representative believes that's the right thing to do I'm not so sure,'' Robinson said.

We've tried to let him concentrate on his football. Let him enjoy himself and hopefully he'll keep doing what he's doing.'

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