Hammell hopes to cash in from his midfield’s net gains

MOTHERWELL manager Stevie Hammell joked that he is ready to take half of Callum Slattery’s goal bonus — after telling his entire midfield that they have to make Motherwell a team capable of hitting the net from all over the park.

Slattery popped up to level the scoring at 2-2 after goals from Bojan Miovski and Jonny Hayes had given Aberdeen an undeserved lead following Blair Spittal’s opener — and paved the way for Kevin Van Veen to tie up all three points.

Hammell insists pressure has to be taken off the front men in terms of hitting the target and told Slattery, who poked home a Sean Goss corner, that he was destined to get off the mark at Pittodrie by following instructions at set-pieces.

‘We need to have good running power in the team.

We need to get bodies in the box,’ he said after marking his first game as permanent manager with a win. ‘We weren’t carrying enough attacking threat. Players from the forward midfield areas, wide areas, they are all on the pitch to create goals and score goals. We need to get the numbers up and we saw that with the midfielders chipping in. I thought we could have been a bit more clinical in front of goal but a win up here is a great result. It’s going to be hard. ‘We need to be fitter and understand we are making subs not because the boys aren’t playing well but because they have given their all.

‘To see it come good was great, including Callum, who I told before the game he would score if he put himself in the right positions. He said he is going to give me half his goal bonus, so I’ll take that straight off him, for sure.

‘The players are taking those messages on board and to do that against a good team who signed some good players was great, but it is just a start. We want to and we need to be better.’

And Hammell (left) made no apologies for enjoying the celebrations at time-up.

‘Sometimes, you can get carried away,’ he said. ‘I was getting a bit of stick from Aberdeen fans after we scored but it was good to see our fans travel up here.

Win, lose or draw, we need to go over and respect that.

‘I had family in the stand. They have not come to many games over the last few years. It is good that they are here. We won and I know how much they would have been enjoying that at the end.’