Motherwell were held to a goalless draw by Falkirk in their first home Premiership fixture of the season, but manager Alfred Johansson remains upbeat about his side's start to the campaign.
The Steelmen have now failed to win their opening two league fixtures for the first time since 2007, when they beat Inverness 2-1. Despite this, Johansson said he would have "bitten the hand off" anyone who offered him such an encouraging unbeaten start to his managerial career in Scotland.
Johansson praises players' efforts
"There was so many positives," Johansson stated. "Listen, if someone would've told me before the start of the season, you're gonna win both games 5-0 on aggregate against HB, clean sheet. You're gonna win away against Hibs in the Premiership season opener. You'll go to Helsinki and take the lead, get the game the way that you want it to be, go home with a draw from Europe. And then not play the best game, but grab one point and a clean sheet in the home opener - if someone would've asked, do you take it? I take it. I go home."
"So we are not satisfied with the performance today, but we are super happy with the effort that the players are putting in. I'm so impressed. The guys, some of them are still playing much more than what they're actually ready to do, and still, they don't complain. They just play. They still get annoyed when I take them off because they just wanna play and contribute, and they are not using any excuses."
"They're just fighting like crazy for Motherwell FC. I'm so proud to be the coach of these guys. They're doing brilliantly, and we are not gonna hit the nail on the head every day, so it's still a really positive start."
Falkirk's poor run continues
In contrast to Motherwell's strong start, Falkirk arrived at Fir Park having lost all four of their Scottish Premiership matches since beating Motherwell 1-0 in May 2026. That is their worst losing streak since a five-game slide in 2008.
Both sides struggled to create chances in a tactical battle, with the home side coming closest when Ibrahim Said's shot cannoned back off the crossbar on the half-hour mark.
European toll and lessons learned
Johansson acknowledged that the demands of playing in Europe have been a new experience for many of his players. "Of course, it's a new thing for many who haven't tried it before," he said. "Some players have been in that European rhythm before. Some have done it down in England where you have to play every three or four days. So it's obviously a skill you have to learn where the rhythm is totally different. You don't train and have a day off on Wednesday; it's a different rhythm. You need to learn it, and we are learning it right now, living the experience."
"But I think the toll in the second half today came much more from our performance on the ball. That's how I see it. I think today we played a first half that is OK. It's not amazing, but it's OK. We created a thing or two. I think in the second half, we didn't quite play as well as we expect from ourselves on the ball."
"And that then means that if you waste the ball as much as we did in periods in the second half, you're gonna have to run a lot. So I think that took its toll more than anything else, how we played with the ball. And that led to way too chaotic momentum shifts in the game that we don't really like."
"Yeah, all credit to the players for how much effort they put in to actually then try to fix that problem with hard work and maintaining the clean sheet. You can't expect at the end, the last 20 minutes when Falkirk take more and more danger into our box, you can't expect to keep a clean sheet."
"Therefore, I think we need to learn so we don't end up in those situations where we can't maintain the quality in our ball possession and in our attacks. And then we're gonna have to run less, and then we're gonna be more fresh, and then we'll probably look much better in the second half. That's what we need to learn."
"All credit to everyone then to not just give up because it was a hard day in the second half, but we dug deep and we maintained the clean sheet, which is really important."
Motherwell now prepare for their second leg with HJK on Thursday night at Fir Park, before facing Stenhousemuir away in the Premier Sports League Cup next Sunday.
