Stuart Kettlewell is urging his Motherwell side not to have a Hampden hangover as they look to bounce back from their League Cup disappointment without injured right-back Stephen O’Donnell.
Motherwell welcome St Johnstone to Fir Park on Saturday and the manager stressed it is imperative to “take care of league action” and park the disappointment of Sunday’s semi-final defeat by Rangers.
“That’s what I said, don’t have a hangover and that disappointment,” he said. “But you’ve got another opportunity to do it as well. As difficult as that might be, this football club under Stephen Robinson managed to do that some six years ago, get to Hampden a few times in the season.
“But I don’t think you’ll ever achieve anything unless you’re taking care of the league action. So very simply, they have to take the good aspects of it, you have to be motivated by the negative side of it.
“But it’s not just about cup football, that’s about trying to take that into league action for us as well.”
Motherwell will need to do it without O’Donnell, who missed out on Sunday with a hamstring injury and is set to endure a spell on the sidelines.
“He’s going to be out for a period of time,” Kettlewell said. “It’s difficult to put the exact date on that but we know categorically he’ll be out for at least another four weeks and potentially into December.”