Alexander happy as Motherwell dig deep against Morton

Graham Alexander admitted that it was about perseverance as Motherwell came from behind to defeat Morton to book their place in the last 16 of the Scottish Cup.

After the two sides were unable to be separated after normal time, extra-time was required to find a winner, and it was the Premiership’s fourth-placed side who prevailed as Liam Donnelly’s powerful drive rocketed into the roof of the net in the dying moments.

A cup upset looked on the cards at Fir Park when Robbie Muirhead fired the visitors ahead with the last touch of the first half of extra-time.

However, top goal scorer Kevin van Veen gave the Steelmen a lifeline as he fired home a spot kick to level the tie before Donnelly’s last-gasp winner dashed the underdogs’ hopes.

Alexander said: “It was about perseverance. When Morton got that goal, it put us in a difficult spot but credit to the players for battling back. It was a fantastic penalty from Kevin and a great finish from Liam.

“It was about how long we had left to come back and we didn’t have that long. We had 15 minutes and we hadn’t managed to get that goal in the previous 105 minutes so we knew time was against us.

“We asked the players not to panic in extra-time because we felt that we would have that extra bit of quality to at least get an equaliser and maybe a winner and we did both.

“I am always confident in my players.

“I thought we showed Morton the right respect, we competed hard and worked hard, but we were just done by a counter-attack and a sucker punch.

“But we found the courage and character to dig ourselves out of it.”