Jens Berthel Askou admits harsh half-time words inspired Motherwell to victory

Manager Jens Berthel Askou admits he and assistant Max Rogers had to have stern words at half-time as Motherwell came from behind to beat Livingston 2-1 in the William Hill Premiership.

The visitors went in at the interval trailing to Jeremy Bokila’s penalty and were fortunate not to find themselves further behind.

But the Steelmen rallied in the second half and levelled with a penalty of their own through Apostolos Stamatelopoulos.

Then, just moments after he had an effort ruled out for offside, Elijah Just scored in stoppage time to hand Motherwell their second league win of the season.

Askou said: “It was a big moment at half-time. I thought I’d raised the decibel level up enough and then my assistant turned it up even more.

“I praised him for that moment because it gave the players that last bit of understanding we needed.

“It was a day where we could create big momentum for ourselves and the result feels like that.

“We weren’t at our best but we showed a lot of character and that could be a big boost of energy going into a busy week for us.

“We did just enough at the end and produced just enough quality when tight calls didn’t go our way.

“Big credit to everyone for keeping going and grinding it out.”

Livingston went ahead in the 26th minute through Bokila after the forward was felled in the box under a clumsy challenge from Liam Gordon.

Lions midfielder Macaulay Tait was then penalised for a needless handball, allowing Stamatelopoulos to level in the 59th minute.

Just sent the away fans home happy after ramming a shot past Jerome Prior from inside the box in the dying stages.

Livingston manager Davie Martindale, whose side remain bottom, said: “There’s a lot in the performance I’m quite happy with and I don’t want any doom and gloom.

“There’s a bit of PTSD kicking about just now with people feeling sorry for themselves but I’m not.

“I potentially thought the season would be a bit different but not a million miles away.

“But the disappointment is the late goals we are losing.

“I feel there’s a lot of growth still to go with the group. We’ve been a wee bit unlucky but it’s important we learn from these mistakes.

“You actually look at that back four and how they were strung together because of injuries but I don’t want to use that as a reason, I thought they performed really well in the game.”