Motherwell ace Craig Tanner bids to slay Dons after superb sub show at Hibs

The ex-Reading ace (22) hopes to start against the Dons after his superb display as a second half substitute at Easter Road on Saturday, when he set up ’Well’s first strike for two-goal hero Louis Moult as the Steelmen recovered from 2-0 down to draw 2-2.

Tanner said: “When you’re 2-0 down – which I don’t think was a deserved scoreline – I always think you’ve got nothing to lose as a sub.

“The lads have been brilliant recently and people like me, Bigi (Gael Bigirimana) and Alex Fisher have all had to be very patient for our chances.

“Bigi came on and did well last week so I knew that’s the standard I had to be too. Lucky enough I made a similar impact and Bigi made another one today.

“It’s not about the starting 11, it’s about the whole squad.

“We’ll have to wait and see if the manager (Stephen Robinson) picks me to start against Aberdeen. Whether he picks people like Bigi or me doesn’t matter.

“It’s not just about what you do coming on for 30 minutes, it’s about how you apply yourself throughout the whole week.

“No manager can look at just one performance. He needs to look at Monday through Friday’s training.”

Tanner said it was a credit to Motherwell that they’d managed to hold onto sought after striker Moult during the summer transfer window. And the midfielder said that the Steelmen could take confidence from going to a tough venue like Easter Road and coming back from two down to draw.

Tanner even said that Motherwell were “slightly disappointed” not to win the game, having missed other good scoring opportunities.

And the former Plymouth Argyle loanee praised the Steelmen’s fantastic travelling support of nearly 1000 for roaring the team on.

“I think the number of fans is growing each week along with the noise they make,” Tanner said.

“We need to make them want to travel and that’s showing with the performances we’re putting in. We have people playing a pressing game which is really getting the fans going.”