Motherwell

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

The high-flying Steelmen did it again.

Another three points gathered means we remain third and if things continue we may just stay there.

It's not just on the pitch where Motherwell are doing great work. Saturday marked the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and in true Motherwell fashion we ensured our community offered a safe space for disabled fans to enjoy the game.

We have always had the wheelchair shelter next to the Phil O'Donnell stand. However, bringing technology that allowed blind supporters to be able to actually see what was happening on the pitch is life changing.

As someone with family members that have varying degrees of sight loss, knowing these special augmented reality headsets are an option is mind blowing.

I would never have known this technology existed if it wasn't for the awareness the Well Society and the club's Disabled Supporters Association brought to it.

Motherwell is one of the greatest clubs in the country for what they do for the people of the local community regardless if they are a fan or not.

Outside of having facilities for blind supporters and fans with mobility issues they also released videos of the mascot using sign language. In a society where accessibility can be overlooked it makes an enormous difference.

One thing I will always be proud of is the club truly puts their money where their mouth is when it comes to making sure the people come first.

Motherwell continued their superb league form with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Livingston on Saturday.

Jens Berthel Askou made seven changes to his starting line-up, but there was no drop in performance level as they made it eight games without defeat and four successive clean sheets.

Sportscene pundit Richard Foster is impressed by the depth Askou has built at Fir Park.

"Motherwell have invested in their squad - they have a lot of quality and depth," he said.

"The way they play - they want to get the ball down and pass it - and that pitch is the best in the league, so it works out really well."

Jonathan Sutherland
Sportscene presenter

Johnny Koutroumbis is superb defensively in this slick Motherwell side and lively going forward.

His part in Jens Berthel Askou's team's win over Livingston on Saturday earns him a spot in my team of the week.

Watch highlights of Motherwell's 3-0 win against Livingston in the Scottish Premiership.

We asked for your views on Motherwell's 3-0 win against Livingston.

Here's what some of you said:

Alan: The quality in the squad is coming to the fore creating competition for players in this amazing sequence of games. Three goals without reply helps consolidate Motherwell's third place in the league. The confidence in the team shines through and supporters can only celebrate this cohesive effort by everyone involved. Long may it continue.

Brian: Super-duper result. A game where our excellent play creating chances and more importantly taking them gave us a comfortable victory against David Martindale's resolute Livingston side. Happy me.

James: We go from strength to strength. Another dominant performance, and with so many changes, it seems every player fits into our system. Great to see, and long may it last.

Stuart: Delighted to see us turn dominance into a dominant score line - 3-0 didn't flatter us and we need to continue with this mentality. Take our chances and we have a great, if not once in a lifetime opportunity to do something incredibly special this year.

Alistair: Our two "auld heids", Stephen O'Donnell and Paul McGinn were outstanding, and there were others who were very, very good, notably John Koutroumbis, Elliot Watt, Regan Charles-Cook and Scott Pittman. Calum Ward's distribution was really impressive. All round another excellent team performance, maintaining our push up the league based on a progressive style of football which I have not seen us play in over 60 years of attending Fir Park. Deeply satisfying.

Kevin: A fine example of embracing change and mindset. Confidence is high and rightly so. Players and staff with a smile on their face and it's catching!

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Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou: "It's hard not to be happy with the run we have gone through over the past two weeks, with five games, four clean sheets, just conceding once, and a good number of points.

"Far from everything has been perfect, I think we can all admit to that, there have been plenty of mistakes, but we have come through a very hectic period with some big games. We've been able to rotate a lot.

"We've seen players in different positions. That's also been important, mixed up some relations on the pitch, and still we've been able to put a very competitive side on the pitch, and that's very exciting for the future.

"We want to be one of the best attacking teams, if not the best, in the league. And we want to have the same level defensively. It's very difficult to create that in a short period of time.

"We have a goalkeeper who has been absolutely outstanding for a long time now, and especially over the last period of time. You see that again today, the few big moments we gave away to the opposition, he took care of them with top, top actions.

"So many positives to take, and obviously we are still reaching for a higher level because I think there's more in us than what we see right now.

"We try to build a style and an approach in this club, that we're not afraid of anything, that we play with bravery and confidence in the way we do things.

"We know it's going to be difficult to do what we do against different opposition, and some games have been extremely difficult. I think today was at times very difficult.

"But we approach every game like we want to win, and that's why we have formed and built this approach to the game, this style of play, because we want to create something where we have this feeling."

Much-changed Motherwell moved to within six points of the Scottish Premiership summit after extending their unbeaten streak to eight games with a routine three-goal win over bottom-club Livingston.

Have your say on the game here.

Read our match report here.

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Motherwell have no fresh injury doubts while Elliot Watt is set to return after being rested at Falkirk.

They are still missing Filip Stuparevic (knee), Aston Oxborough (hand), Sam Nicholson (knee), Zach Robinson (Achilles), Jordan McGhee and Eseosa Sule (both thigh).

Livingston could bring back Connor McLennan and Cammy Kerr while Mo Sylla missed out last time after being injured in an aerial challenge.

Aidan Denholm and Shane Blaney (both hamstring) and Adam Montgomery (calf) remain on the sidelines.

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Motherwell goalkeeper Calum Ward will continue to ignore the "outside noise" as he strives to keep repaying the faith of manager Jens Berthel Askou.

Ward was criticised after costly errors earlier in the season, but Askou stuck by him and has been rewarded with three consecutive clean sheets.

Motherwell have only conceded two goals in their past six Premiership games and sit third ahead of Saturday's visit of Livingston.

Ward said: "It feels good to get the confidence of the manager and his backing. He did that at the start which was nice to hear but I obviously back my own ability and currently it's been going well for myself and the team obviously.

"I just keep my head down and keep focused and ignore the outside noise of what gets said, because to us it really means nothing.

"All that matters to me is what the manager and the goalkeeper coach and the rest of the staff say. So that's what I've got to focus on and just ignore everything else.

"It feels good to get three (clean sheets) in a row. It's what we strive for as goalkeepers and defenders so it's pretty good.

"I felt pretty confident going into the season but obviously as the games go on you feel you get more confident and obviously with the results we've had the last few weeks it always helps."

Clive Lindsay
BBC Sport Scotland

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Two goalless draws have slowed Motherwell's momentum just when it looked like Jens Berthel Askou's side were getting the wins to accompany the lavish praise they have been receiving for their style of play under their new manager.

Nevertheless, they remain third top of the table and they will be hoping Tawanda Maswanhise, in particular, can end that barren spell before the Zimbabwe forward heads off to the Africa Cup of Nations.

The 23-year-old, who joined Well from Leicester City last year, has scored eight Premiership goals this season - 36% of his side's overall 22, contributing the highest ratio of any player for any club in the division.

Together with his one assist, that is level with Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland and two more goal involvements than Daizen Maeda, whose 17 goals and nine assists in 2025 is the most in a calendar year by a Celtic player since Leigh Griffiths (25/5) in 2016.

Indeed, Motherwell have only lost one of the nine games this season during which Maswanhise has scored.

He did not score in October's 2-1 win away to Saturday's visitors, Livingston, but he found the net in all three of their wins in the seven games since.

Maswanhise will see the visit of the Premiership's bottom side as a great chance to add to his 12 goals overall this season considering Well have won four in a row against David Martindale's side with an aggregate score of 12-4.

Indeed, while Well have gone five games unbeaten, Livingston are 13 without a win and have not won in 16 visits to Fir Park, losing the latest six.

Read all the weekend Premiership picks

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• Tawanda Maswanhise has scored 36% of Motherwell's Scottish Premiership goals this season (8/22), the highest ratio of any player for any club in the competition this term.

• Motherwell have won their past four league meetings with Livingston and could win five in a row against them in the top flight for the first time.

• Livingston are winless in 16 top-flight away games at Motherwell (D3 L13) since a 5-1 victory in October 2002. They have lost on each of their past six league visits to Fir Park.

• Motherwell have only lost one of their past 12 home league games (W6 D5), keeping a clean sheet in three in a row since going down 2-1 to Falkirk in October. The Steelmen last kept a clean sheet in four consecutive home league games in September 1998.

• Livingston are winless in 12 league games (D4 L8) since a 3-1 victory over Falkirk in August. The Lions have lost their past two, but haven't lost three successive Premiership matches since January 2024 – a run which included a 3-1 away loss to Motherwell.

Andy Campbell
BBC Scotland

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Stephen O'Donnell believes every Scottish player should be trying to give national manager Steve Clarke "a headache" in the run-up to the World Cup.

The men's team will take part in next summer's finals after a 28-year absence.

"It'll give every single player that's Scottish - even the ones that maybe aren't Scottish but have Scottish somewhere - a possibility to be in the squad," said O'Donnell, who won 26 caps between 2018 and 2022.

"Steve Clarke's never shut anyone down in a squad.

"Every player that's at their club, as their manager should be doing, is keeping their mouth shut, encouraging them and hoping they go and perform well and give the Scotland manager a headache. I think that's what we all should be trying to do."

The draw for the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States takes place in Washington DC on Friday.

"I would love us to have a group that either gets the imagination, the spirit, the colour of the World Cup," said O'Donnell.

"Or I want the three worst teams possible and a right good chance of getting out it with six points or something like that.

"I'm excited to watch it, be part of it, whatever role, if any, I'm in. Player? Who knows."

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Assistant manager Max Rogers says the goalless draw with Falkirk provided a "learning tool" for adapting Motherwell's gameplan.

The Fir Park team remain third in the table after extending their uneaten Premiership run to seven games.

Rogers insists there were "lots of positives to take" into their fixture against Livingston on Saturday.

"It's another clean sheet and another point," he said.

"There's still lots of positives to take. Give credit to Falkirk, they also defended well, pressed us slightly differently than what they have done previously.

"We can use that as a learning tool as well going forward. If teams try and do a similar thing to shut us down and there's not a different free player for us to find, then we've got the solution for that now. So I think that's a positive.

"There's obviously a lot of experienced managers in the division and they'll want to try and stop us playing our game.

"Teams will adapt a little bit more and find new solutions to stopping us playing. So we need to obviously be switched on to that and still prepare, but be ready to react during the game. I think we did that really well.

"You saw it at the start of the second half, we got Tom Sparrow in some really good positions and got some good deliveries into the box. Maybe on a grass pitch the ball would have rolled better for us."

Sportscene pundit Scott Allan analyses how Falkirk boss John McGlynn's tactical set-up disrupted the "fluidity" of in-form visitors Motherwell in the goalless draw.

We asked for your thoughts after Motherwell's goalless draw against Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership.

Here's a taste of what you had to say:

Marcus: Yet another two points dropped due to our inability to consistently put the ball in the back of the net. I am also not completely convinced on Jens Berthel Askou, I just do not think this preferred style is suited to scottish football and I still maintain the idea that someone like Jack Ross or Malky Mackay would have been better suited to achieve success in this league. I want to see my team try and score goals not just win the 'highest possession stats trophy'.

Grant: Well it's the way it goes, teams learn how to play against us and nullify how we play. We will learn how to deal with it. It's a great watch this season, we play fast attacking football and as a Well fan of over 40 years I'm enjoying what I'm watching.

Bill: Should have won the game but for shocking passing and not scoring. About time we started scoring goals instead of passing and doing nothing with chances.

Alan: Another good result with a strong defensive display and no goals conceded. Third in the league at this stage is entirely down to the manager getting it right and the players buying in to his philosophy. We only need to convert the many chances we create to take us to new heights in this league. Give the manager a longer-term contract and let's see where he can take us.

Watch the best of the action as Falkirk and Motherwell play out a goalless stalemate. (Available to UK users only)

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Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou: "I think Falkirk defended really well and made it really hard for us to get control of the game in the final third.

"We didn't do enough in the first half to create the big moments we needed.

"The way we came out in the second half was a lot better, invested more, had our moments and didn't take them. There were fewer and fewer of them as the game went on.

"I think they are growing as a team in terms of defensive mentality and to give ourselves the platform to win every game. It starts with a solid defensive performance.

"We'll take the point although we're a little disappointed we didn't take the moments and that we didn't create more."

Motherwell and Falkirk battled out a goalless draw in the Scottish Premiership, but should it have been more?

Have your say here.

Read the match report here.

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Falkirk's Coll Donaldson and Aidan Nesbitt are back in training after lengthy spells out but not yet ready to start.

Keelan Adams (groin) is unlikely to be fit but Filip Lissah should make it. Gary Oliver (hamstring), Ross MacIver (ankle), Lewis Neilson (ankle) and Tom Lang (foot) remain on the sidelines.

Andy Halliday is closing in on fitness for Motherwell, who are still missing Filip Stuparevic (knee), Aston Oxborough (hand), Sam Nicholson (knee), Zach Robinson (Achilles), Jordan McGhee and Eseosa Sule (both thigh).

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• After their 2-1 win in October, Falkirk could secure back-to-back league victories over Motherwell within a single season for the first time since December 2007.

• Motherwell have won three of their past four away league games against newly-promoted opposition (L1), as many as their previous 21 beforehand (W3 D6 L12).

• Falkirk have only lost one of their seven home league games this season (W2 D4) and need just one home win to match their entire season tally from their previous top-flight campaign in 2009-10 (3 home wins).

• Motherwell have won two of their past three away league games (D1), as many as their previous 16 beforehand (W2 D5 L9).

• Motherwell have won their past four midweek league games (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), as many as their previous 18 beforehand (W4 D5 L9).