PETER HARTLEY has swapped the Blackpool Tower for Brandon Tower since signing for Motherwell during the transfer window.
Now the central defender is already excited at the new heights he could reach with the Ladbrokes Premiership club after just a handful of games in claret and amber.
Four games into his year-long stint in Lanarkshire and Hartley is loving life away from the English seaside town he called home for all of two months. Having been out with a foot injury since January, the 29-year-old defender left Bristol Rovers to join Gary Bowyer's men, going on to make two undefeated appearance.
However, with first-team football still a bit off for him, he made the bold choice to look at going out on loan. Motherwell came calling, and the rest is history. And after playing a key part in helping Motherwell into the Betfred Cup semi-finals with a goal in Thursday's 3-0 win over Aberdeen and not to mention taking them into the top six, Hartley is feeling bold about what can be achieved under Stephen Robinson.
He said: “Looking at that dressing room there I don’t see why we can’t finish in the top six.
“But you take it a game at a time, every one is different. The next one is Partick Thistle, we have three hard training sessions then we go again.
“Thursday was incredible. I was taken aback by how passionate the fans were.
“I’ve nothing but good words to say about the fans and the club. Everyone has made me so welcome and I’m just happy to be playing football again. I had quite a long lay-off last season and I’m just trying to get back into my stride and find my consistency.
“To be honest it was purely about playing games. I’ve got to give big thanks to Gary Bowyer because he easily could have kept me there and sat me on the bench. He opted to play a different centre-half from me but I had a chat with him and said ‘Listen I’m 29, I’m in the peak of my career and I need to go and play games’. Credit to him he allowed me to do that."
Part of Hartley's optimism comes from the promising results garnered during his time in Lanarkshire, yet even in defeat there are signs of their strength. After dumping Aberdeen out of the League Cup on Thursday, Derek McInnes' side returned on Premiership duty with a radically-changed line-up geared at stopping Motherwell in their tracks and claimed a narrow 1-0 victory.
“I thought we deserved more than a point from the game. Given the way we played on Thursday they came h ere, changed their formation and tried to nullify our threats. The only difference in the game was how they dealt with our front two," he said. “We still played well and I’d like to think we’d have got something from the game on a different day.
“Every game is different, it’s a different challenge even though it’s the same team. They’ve changed formation but it’s a different type of game.
“You saw when they scored, they weren’t interested in playing football they just tried to turn us all the time. To be fair, it’s a credit to us because the way the boys from Aberdeen are celebrating like they’ve won the league.
“People say it’s little old Motherwell but given where the boys came from last season to now, with them being runners up in two cup finals and finishing second, is credit to us."
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