Motherwell

We asked for your views after Motherwell's losing run extended to six games with Sunday's 2-0 defeat at home to Hearts.

Here's what you had to say:

Adam: Same performance, different week. We go through a good spell during the game where we create chances but just don't have the clinical instinct in the final third. Defensive errors have cost us again, with slack passes and not closing down players quickly enough. Good teams capitalise on that. I have never seen a downfall like Tawanda Maswanhise's before. Ever since the Afcon tournament, he's been a different player, with what looks like no fight or desire. The manager has the St Johnstone and St Mirren games to save his job.

George: We've just not coped with losing our midfield-to-front pressing players from last season, and their replacements - Jardell Kanga and Alex Lowry aside - have been poor. At the back, Stephen O'Donnell is now consistently gifting goals whenever he's on the pitch and should be moving into coaching, as he can't cope. Eythor Bjorgolfsson should be dropped from the squad completely.

Matthew: Felt we deserved something from the game. Another defensive error from O'Donnell kills the game. Once the errors at the back stop and we finish our chances, everything will click.

Taylor: Alfred Johansson? Three words. GET HIM GONE! In-game management is non-existent. Sometimes you need to hold your hands up and say something hasn't worked. Get it sorted before it's too late. Maswanhise has been a man down since January and is offering nothing. His head is clearly not at Motherwell, and he's still starting ahead of players who are willing to fight on the pitch. O'Donnell comes on for two minutes and gifts Hearts a goal. That's three gifts from him in the past three games. He should have been nowhere near that team. On a positive note, it's the best I've seen Joe Hodge play in a Motherwell shirt, battling for everything, and Kanga was a breath of fresh air when he came on. Why he's not starting, I do not know.

Colin: Worrying times ahead. The second-half performance was the best we've played in a while, but we are toothless up front. Yet again, another bit of shocking defending leads to Hearts' second goal. It's going to be a long slog at the bottom of the league for us unless something changes soon.

Mark: The writing is on the wall for the gaffer. He insists on selecting underperforming players and always has the same excuses after matches. Wednesday is a must-win, or it's Johansson out.

Watch Hearts secure a rare away win at struggling Motherwell. (UK only)

Calvin Miller's late goal sealed a hard-fought win for Hearts over Motherwell and secured their first win outside of Edinburgh in the Scottish Premiership since January.

Read the full match report here

Have your say on the game via this link

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson tells BBC Scotland: "It certainly is not [a 2-0 game] based on the amount of chances the teams created.

"We did good things but it's in the boxes, it's in their box and our box that games get decided. We did enough get into positions where we have a chance to score goals but we don't which is very frustrating for all of us.

"In our box, it's too easy and it's not enough if you want to win games in this league. It's very frustrating to close a game like this again.

"We need to improve. It's me, it's the players, it's what we do on the training ground.

"One game changes a lot, one goal can change a lot so we have to keep on going.

"We have the chance again on Wednesday to take this step that everyone deserves.

"We do many things well but it's not enough because in the end it's about scoring goals and not conceding goals. We need to step up in that moment and we need to show it on Wednesday."

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Motherwell are set to have Oscar Priestman and Regan Charles-Cook back in contention. Callum Hendry and Paul McGinn are out but continue to progress towards a return.

Hearts are expected to be without Harry Milne (knee), Christian Borchgrevink (hamstring), Oisin McEntee (muscle), Stuart Findlay (groin), Ageu (muscle), Craig Halkett (Achilles), Blair Spittal (shin) and Tom Renaud (ankle).

But Amadou Ba-Sy could be involved after not being part of the European squad.

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson believes fine margins have cost his side during a five-game losing run.

After a bright start to the season, the Steelmen have faltered, with last weekend's 3-2 defeat at Kilmarnock continuing a slide down the Scottish Premiership table.

"It is not too simplistic [for one result to turn the season] because sometimes it's like that, football is a game of margins," Johansson said.

"When we played Falkirk at home, if we had a little bit more of the margins to our side than we would have won 1-0.

"If we had the margins a little bit more against us away to Hibs, then maybe we draw instead of win that game.

"And similarly in Killie, if we execute better in some moments, offensive and defensive, then we win that game.

"So it is not too simplistic because these things they tend then to create emotions in players, and belief and energy.

"I am super impressed with the energy of the boys in the training ground at the moment, but still, you want to get paid [with results]."

Motherwell are next in action on Sunday against Hearts, who have lost their past two outings against Celtic and Trabzonspor and are suffering an injury crisis.

"They are aggressive and are high pressing man-to-man," Johansson said of Wouter Vrancken's side. "They are strong in the combinations to go forward.

"You can see they have got a coach from abroad that focuses in some of these things. I think they have been doing really well.

"They have been quite solid defensively in the league, apart from the Celtic game, so I think we will come up against a good team that will try to be themselves at Fir Park."

Cal Gilkison
BBC Sport Scotland

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Alfred Johansson has been speaking to the media before Motherwell host Hearts in the Premiership on Sunday (14:00 GMT).

Here are the key points:

• Johansson will "stick to my principles" following a run of five successive defeats. He says: "There are some big positives we need to continue with and reinforce and then there are some issues we need to fix."

• The Swede is drawing on experiences from his spell at Rosenborg to help him get through this difficult period: "We were just above the relegation zone and newspapers all over were like, 'Rosenberg is going to go down, this is the biggest crisis ever' - and we ended fourth that season. All of a sudden things that we had been working on clicked. We just stuck to what we had been working on and got the hang of it with a young squad. I don't believe in changing things completely."

• Johansson credited Motherwell's players for staying "professional" throughout the tough run of form, adding: "You see it every day in training. They have a fantastic attitude and fantastic effort. Everyone is just committed and works really hard. They make my job easy."

• The return of Oscar Priestman and Regan Charles-Cook this weekend is a "big positive" for the Steelmen. Callum Hendry and Paul McGinn are "progressing well" but aren't quite ready for their return.

• On Hearts, the Motherwell boss says: "I expect to come up against a good team that are aggressive in their high pressing. You can see they've got a coach from abroad that focuses on these things. I think they've been doing really well. They've been quite solid defensively in the league apart from the Celtic game. I think we'll come up against a good team that will try and be themselves at Fir Park."

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• Motherwell have spent a league-low 16.7% of their Scottish Premiership games this season winning, while only Celtic have spent a higher proportion of their matches in the lead (64.8%) than Hearts (45.4%)

• Each of Motherwell's past three home league games against Hearts have been drawn, with two of those finishing goalless.

• Hearts are unbeaten in seven league meetings with Motherwell (W3 D4) since a 3-1 defeat in August 2024.

• Motherwell have lost five successive league games, last losing more in a row in April 2003 (6).

• Hearts have won just two of their past 12 away league games (D3 L7), losing 7-1 at Celtic last time out. Home and away, Hearts had shipped just six goals in their previous seven league matches before that defeat.

Former Dundee and Dunfermline Athletic boss James McPake urges under-pressure managers Alfred Johansson and Craig McLeish of Motherwell and St Mirren to "stick to your principles". (Sun, external)

Thursday's Scottish gossip

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

Well, it certainly wasn't the best trip to Ayrshire, was it?

Conceding a goal after two minutes sums up the issues we've been having lately. Our defence is nowhere near as capable or strong compared to last season and it desperately has to change.

If the highs of last term had never happened no one would be as panicked about the current five-game losing run.

At least there is positivity off the pitch - Saturday is the Well Society's celebration event to mark 10 years of fan ownership.

The Well Society is the crown jewel of Motherwell as both a business and a football club.

I know in a cost-of-living crisis money is tight, but you can contribute as little as £5 per month. That will still be £60 a year the club didn't have in their reserves before you contributed.

In a time of uncertainty and poor results I hope fans can come together and rejoice in the knowledge the club are in good hands behind the scenes.

Sportscene pundit Richard Foster says it is too early to be overly concerned about Motherwell, but believes Alfred Johansson must "try something different" to halt a five-game losing run.

Watch Sportscene highlights of the weekend's top-flight action

Watch all the highlights as Kilmarnock moved off the bottom of the Scottish Premiership, and confined Motherwell to a fifth successive defeat with a victory at Rugby Park. Available to UK users only.

Motherwell fans, we asked for your views on Saturday's defeat to Kilmarnock.

Here's what some of you said:

David: I really fear for us this season. After a promising start, we've fallen away badly. It's all been downhill since the Stenhousemuir cup match. Alfred Johansson seems like a really good guy but I don't think he has the tactical nous that Jens Berthel Askou had.

Stuart: A complete lack of defensive awareness, organisation, and accountability. It's the same issues for weeks now and a real concern it's not being addressed.

John: Another non-Motherwell performance. Too many players making mistakes with the manager failing to get his selection and tactics right. Is his jacket on a shoogly peg? Time will tell.

Andrew: I'm afraid time is running out for the manager. I think he's out of his depth.

Sinky: Things are going from bad to worse. We are heading towards the cliff face and I fear that if we are defeated in our next three games it may be time to start looking for a new manager. It was always unlikely to reach last season's heights but this season couldn't be more polar opposite.

George: It is hard to understand what our plan or structure is nowadays. Where is any prolonged cohesiveness? We have become a team of bits and pieces with a majority of the team looking lost. It would be a terrible irony if the team who lit up the league last term were reduced to a damp squib.

Kilmarnock inflicted a fifth Scottish Premiership defeat in a row on Motherwell in a five-goal thriller at Rugby Park to lift Neil McCann's side off the bottom of the table.

Read the full match report here

Have your say on the game via this link

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson tells BBC Scotland: "I think we ended this game in an unacceptable way.

"It's difficult to accept the fact that we lost this match. We did so many good things in this game. We reacted fantastically to conceding so early. After that, I saw a Motherwell team that created big chances, pressed together, scored two goals.

"At half-time we knew they would try to be more direct and that was something we needed to handle. We managed the start to the second half alright but we conceded two unacceptable goals.

"Even if we created more chances to score today, we can't rely on scoring three goals away from home to take points and victories. We conceded goals in a way that was unacceptable and it's something we need to improve.

"It's basics that we're failing and that's not enough.

"We're not going to change thinking, we're going to improve. Whether that's personnel or on the pitch, it's probably both. We need to make sure we don't concede goals like this. The third goal we just left a runner in behind and this is something that needs to be worked on.

"I can't accept how we ended this game. It's really difficult to accept how we lost this game."

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Kilmarnock goalkeeper Max Stryjek remains out for a considerable period of time with a knee injury, but otherwise boss Neil McCann is pleased with the numbers available.

Motherwell welcome back Johnny Koutroumbis but Dylan Williams, Regan Charles-Cook, Oscar Priestman and Callum Hendry are set to miss out.

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Motherwell right-back Stephen O'Donnell is not pressing the panic button despite four straight Scottish Premiership defeats.

Alfred Johansson's side have only taken one win from their last nine – against Dundee United in September – as they prepare to face O'Donnell's former club, Kilmarnock, on Saturday.

"We'll come back in April and, if we haven't won since then, I'll be panicking," he said.

"Just now it's frustrating, it's disappointing, there are lots of words to use, but not 'panic' just now. There have been far too many changes in the summer for us to be panicking this early on, especially when we did have the good run in Europe – albeit we'd have liked it to be more.

"We have a lot of things to work on, no panic, and hopefully we'll get a positive result – and, on grass, which is nice, it will be the first time I've been on grass at Killie since playing reserve football, so that's a long time!

"I'm excited for it and hopefully it's a good game.

"Wins change everything. Three points change the whole rhetoric around everything and you can then start to look to the next game with more of a positive mind-frame.

"We just need to get that win, and hopefully it comes on Saturday."

O'Donnell says he has not seen too much of Saturday's opponents this season.

"I saw them against Celtic in the first game of the season and I thought they were hard done by," he said.

"It will be a tough game, I'm looking forward to going back, and hopefully it will be a good day for us."

O'Donnell says Motherwell are still building as they look to repeat their success last term under Jens Berthel Askou.

"When the previous manager came in there was no expectation, but fans have now put an expectation on what they want to see and that takes time," he added.

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson has been speaking to the media ahead of their trip to face Kilmarnock this weekend.

Here are the key points from his press conference:

• After a run of four consecutive losses, Johansson recognises the character in the squad to maintain a positive outlook throughout the squad: "I think here I see a group of people coming into work with a smile on their faces, working really, really hard, both staff and players. So obviously that's not always easy when you don't win, so I think it shows even more character and speaks loud about the personalities and the commitment that we have around this place."

• On what needs to be improved, he adds: "I think our intensity and how we protect our own box needs to be improved. I think we need to press with more togetherness, so that's two things in the basics that we need to improve. I think we need to play a little bit more forward in the offensive half of the pitch, putting more bodies inside the box when we attack."

• Johansson says that while every team, in every season, will have ups and downs, he admits four straight defeats were not expected, but insists Motherwell are still building a strong team: "So am I surprised? No, I'm not. Did I think that we were going to lose four games in a row? No, but obviously, knowing that we will not just bring 11 new players in and then go on and consistently win all the games and be in the top [of the league] straight away. That's not how football works," going on to add, "If you could do that, then everyone would just do that. So we are still building something here. We're building a team."

• However, he knows that he cannot ask the fans to be patient: "I'm never going to ask supporters for patience because what they're thriving off of is their passion. And passion is an emotion. It's a feeling. It's instant," adding, "They should be happy when we win and they are allowed to be angry and disappointed when we lose. Simple as that. They need to be behind the team."

• On whether or not he would be happy to start winning games while sacrificing the performances on the park, he says: "You can't say win or play the way that we want to play. It doesn't make any sense. So what we do is we have a philosophy, we want to play in this way because we believe that that's the best way for us to win. So if we do something else, we have fewer chances of winning."

• Johansson welcomes back Johnny Koutroumbis and hopes the injury list will continue to go down in the next few weeks: "I believe Johnny Koutroumbis will be available for selection, and we wait for other guys for the next couple of weeks. We will look better in a couple of weeks."

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• Motherwell's Emmanuel Longelo has created the most chances of any player without an assist yet in this season's Scottish Premiership (14), while also ranking joint-fourth for most shots without scoring (12).

• Motherwell have lost four consecutive Scottish Premiership league games for the first time since February 2025 (5 in a row). It wasn't until their 29th league match of last season that the Steelmen suffered their fourth defeat.

• Kilmarnock have the joint-fewest points (1, level with Hibernian), joint-fewest goals (2, level with Aberdeen), and most goals conceded (11) at home of any side in the Scottish Premiership this season.

• Motherwell have won three of their last four Scottish Premiership matches against Kilmarnock (D1), as many as their previous 12 beforehand (W3 D5 L4).

• Kilmarnock have lost both of their last two league games against Motherwell, last losing three in a row in September 2017.

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

After what has felt like an eternity, the first international break is over and the real football has returned.

For as long as I can remember Motherwell have never been the best team to watch for the first game after a break, and Sunday proved that further.

People will sensationalise the result and vilify certain players, and even the manager, however, I think we need to keep a clear head with our criticism after a 2-0 loss to Celtic.

Was the strongest team selected? Absolutely not. Should Ibrahim Said have been brought on at half-time? Yes. Is losing 2-0 to Celtic a terrible result? Absolutely not.

When you take the claret and amber glasses off and look at the game, it is not as bad as it appears. Tactically and team-sheet wise as mentioned, we were miles off and Alex Paulsen stopped it from becoming a cricket score.

Now don't get me wrong, Celtic weren't exactly playing world class either, but they had a bigger point to prove than what we did after the humblings they experienced against Rangers and in Europe.

If I have said it once in this column I must've said it a million times. Bad results against Celtic are not what define our seasons.

Our recent results are grim, there is no denying that, and we need to bounce back fast. Going away to a struggling Kilmarnock side where their manager is under a lot more pressure than ours may just give us the boost we need to stop flirting with the drop zone.

At this stage I am not scared that we will remain so low down the table for very long. The season is only three months old. If we are still floating around ninth to 12th in February, then I'll start to panic.

No-one was ever going to truly be able to replicate what Jens did last season, and that is OK.

It's panic stations for a lot of fans, which I can understand to a slight extent, but I do genuinely believe if we as a fanbase take a step back and breathe, we'll realise it is not as bad as it appears.

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Willy Vogt's hard work in training earned him a place in the Motherwell starting XI for Sunday's defeat to Celtic, manager Alfred Johansson revealed, after some fans were left bemused by the out-of-form winger's inclusion.

The 24-year-old, a summer signing from Swiss club Bellinzona, was handed his first start in two months on the right side as Johansson's men looked to end a losing run that has now stretched to four games.

However, the forward underwhelmed once again in his 13th appearance since joining the club and was substituted to the sound of sarcastic cheers and boos from some home supporters at Fir Park.

Asked why Vogt had started ahead of Ibrahim Said and Tawanda Maswanhise, Johansson replied: "It's just, from the last couple of weeks, how we've been seeing it in training.

"We believe we picked the right starting XI. And that's why Willy played. He's been working really hard, looking much better in training in the past couple of weeks. It's a competition for spots and we went with Willy.

"I think we struggled on our right side, in the low block and in the medium block, and in the high pressing, which is something we need to look at."

Sunday's 2-0 defeat means Motherwell have scored just once in their past four matches, and Johansson believes his side rushed the final pass when they reached promising positions.

"The last pass and the coolness in that moment needs to be improved in that first half," he added.

"That is probably natural when you're in a moment now where you have lost a couple of games. You force things a little bit at times."