Robinson warns Motherwell players after County scare

The Steelmen were without suspended captain Carl McHugh for the visit of the Dingwall side, and his absence was felt as County ran riot for 45 minutes.

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has warned his young team they must toughen up in the Ladbrokes Premiership fight after watching them escape a first-half hammering against Ross County.

Robinson had stand-in goalkeeper Russell Griffiths and County's wayward finishing to thank for the let-off before ringing in the changes at the interval.

And his decision to switch to a 3-5-2 formation, replacing the ineffective Alex Fisher and Craig Tanner with Allan Campbell and Ryan Bowman, paid off as Richard Tait and Louis Moult - from the penalty spot - earned a 2-0 victory for Well.

"I thought we were being overrun in midfield," said Robinson.

"Some of our players thought we could just turn up and play total football. I let them know what we thought at half-time. The second half we made changes and changed our mentality.

"Without Carl in there we lacked a physical presence. Young Allan Campbell came on and he was absolutely terrific. Won every ball, won every tackle. Ryan Bowman too; we put him on alongside Louis Moult and I thought they caused all sorts of problems.

"We probably didn't deserve to get in at half-time 0-0, but I thought we put in a very good performance in the second half. The 10 men helped but I thought the players showed great character to come out and put in a performance like that to win the game.''

County boss Jim McIntyre, whose side finished the match a man down after Kenny van der Weg saw red, was struggling to understand how his side left Fir Park with nothing.

The Dingwall men were undefeated in their previous five matches on the road and looked nailed-on to make it six, with Michael Gardyne and Jason Naismith in particular causing havoc down each wing.

However, two defensive errors proved decisive in the end. First, centre-back Andrew Davies diverted a simple clearance straight into the path of Motherwell wing-back Tait to open the scoring with a simple tap-in in the 52nd minute.

Van der Weg then bundled Moult over from behind, with the in-demand striker through on goal 16 minutes from the end, leaving referee Alan Muir with an easy decision. Moult picked himself up to send keeper Scott Fox the wrong way from the spot.

"I told the boys not to get complacent, that they'd face a different Motherwell side in the second half," McIntyre said.

"We knew it was going to be a hard slog but the key frustration was that all our good play is forgotten about because we didn't put the ball in the back of the net.

"It's a really disappointing afternoon considering what we put into it."

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