Louis Moult hopeful 'close-knit' Motherwell can beat relegation

Motherwell striker Louis Moult believes the team that socialises together survives together.

The Fir Park frontman and his team-mates face three crucial clashes to save their top-flight status, starting with Saturday's Lanarkshire derby against Hamilton.

But despite a wretched run that has seen Well triumph just once in their last eight games, Moult insists boss Stephen Robinson still presides over a united dressing room.

And he echoed the sentiments of former Rangers skipper Richard Gough, who famously summed up the secret to the Ibrox side's success during the 1990s by saying: "The team which drinks together wins together."

Moult, who has reportedly emerged as a target for current Gers boss Pedro Caixinha, said: "We're a very close-knit group. We're probably closer than we were last season if I'm honest.

"Everyone gets on well and there's groups of boys who do things together away from football, as we do as a team too. I think that's massive for that sense of bonding.

"We're friends as well as team-mates and that's huge. As hard as the run we've been on has been, it can help foster unity.

"When someone tells you a few home truths as a friend, you take it in more. You'd probably take offence if you didn't like the other guy telling you want to do.

"It's evident on a Saturday. You never really see a player effing and blinding at a team-mate at this club and I think that's important.

"If we win - when we win - on Saturday, we'll all be laughing and smiling together. But we will know we have two more games where we need to do it again and I think that will only bring us even closer."

Both Motherwell and Hamilton sit locked on 32 points, although the Steelmen's poorer goal difference leaves them sitting in the relegation play-off slot.

It would be a shock to many at the club if Well were to suffer the drop, but Moult knows the sentiment that his side are too good to be relegated will mean nothing if those words cannot be backed up with results.

"Those words go out the window when you come to this stage of the season," he said. "People have been saying it all season: 'We're too good to go down, we have a good squad.'

"It's all good saying that but you have to perform on the pitch on a Saturday and we haven't.

"We now have to do it Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday to prove to the people who have been saying that all season.

"I believe we can do it and so does everyone else in the dressing room and at the club. It's up to us now."

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