Motherwell manager Graham Alexander warns players: “Consistency isn’t wining two games in a row.”

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander admits he is perplexed by his side’s ability to beat teams above them in the league and then slump against supposedly inferior opponents.

A dejected Motherwell manager Graham Alexander after the 3-0 defeat to Dundee (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The Fir Park side have beaten Aberdeen and Hearts in recent weeks but fell 3-0 to Dundee at Dens Park. All three goals were scored inside 50 minutes from Luke McCowan, Danny Mullen and Ryan Sweeney. It was Motherwell’s first league defeat to Dundee since April 2017.

They have previously won seven league games in a row against the Dens Park side, who did beat Motherwell earlier in the season in the League Cup.

“Everything we were last week we weren’t this week in basic terms,” said Alexander, with reference to the 2-0 win over Hearts in their previous outing. “We were at 80 per cent today and it wasn’t good enough from the start.

"The only thing I can look at is mindset because it’s not the first time we’ve thrown in a performance like that against a team that’s struggling at the bottom of the league. We’ve seen the heights we can reach against Hearts and previously against Aberdeen.

“Then we’ve shown the ugly side of us today. If we try to justify being 10 per cent off it, it’s too much. It has to be all in.”

“It’s the start of the game that concerns me,” he added. “They’ve trained so well and got their rewards recently. But we have to ask ourselves: Did we approach this game in exactly the right manner? If we didn’t, then we let ourselves down. Consistency isn’t wining two games in a row.”