KEITH LASLEY is certain that Motherwell can create another moment to remember in the League Cup tonight despite an indifferent start to their league campaign.
The Fir Park side have picked up just four points from their opening six games, but Lasley feels that their performances have been better than their league position of tenth suggests.
And after reaching both cup finals last season, Motherwell’s assistant manager fully believes that his side can upset the odds when they travel to Tynecastle to face high-flying Hearts for the right to visit Hampden yet again.
“The cups were fantastic for us to be involved in last year, and as a player, I wish I had been involved in more runs like that,” said Lasley.
“Moments like getting to those cup finals last year live long in the memory of everyone connected to the club, and being there only makes you more hungry to get back there again.
“We see this as a big game and an exciting game. We have such great memories and Wednesday night gives us that chance. It will be tough with the opponents we have and how well they have started the season, but we had a game a couple of weeks ago and we felt if anything we were probably the better team for periods of that match.
“On our day, we can give anybody a game, and getting to the semi-final of the cup is certainly an exciting prospect.”
If Motherwell can defeat the Premiership leaders, it will be a welcome tonic for the Lanarkshire side after the bitter taste of narrow defeats in recent weeks in which they have felt hard done by, particularly through calls made by the officials.
First of all, they lost out by a controversial goal to tonight’s opponents at Fir Park after a collision between goalkeeper Trevor Carson and Hearts forward Uche Ikpeazu, and then they felt they were denied at least one clear-cut penalty as they again went down by a single goal to Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday.
“We’re just disappointed,” said Lasley. “Probably the last two games against Hearts and Aberdeen we have come away feeling that it wouldn’t have taken a lot for us to have taken more from the matches.
“It is two narrow defeats, and while we feel that there are definitely areas where we can improve, we still feel as if there were moments in each of the games that could have turned them pretty easily.
“We definitely could have had a penalty on Saturday with the handball in the second half. When Elliott Frear was brought down in the first half, it happened quickly and that can be hard to call, but certainly the handball was a strong claim.
“I don’t think it’s been highlighted really as much as it should have been. It’s a goal-bound effort that was stopped pretty clearly, so that’s disappointing.
“But we just need to move on, that’s football, and hopefully we’ll have a couple of breaks come our way in the coming weeks to even these things up.
“What we need to focus on is our own performances and improving, and that goes into Wednesday night now against Hearts.”
Lasley is hoping that striker Curtis Main will be available for the match this evening after being given the weekend off to attend the birth of his child.
The forward’s two goals this season have come in this competition, and Lasley believes that he can cause Hearts problems if he does make the line-up.
“We are hoping to have Curtis back in the mix for Wednesday,” he said. “It was a big strength for us last year the striking department, and if we can get everybody back fit then we feel that our strikers can cause problems, so hopefully that will be the case over the next few weeks and on Wednesday night.
“Curtis has had one or two little niggles along the way, but a 100 percent fit Curtis Main is a real handful.
“I think anyone who has played against him will tell you that they have been in a game when Curtis is at the top of his game and is 100 percent fit, so we’re hoping to have that available as much as possible.”
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