Motherwell star Stephen O'Donnell: Premiership table doesn't lie and now hard work lies ahead in break

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Stephen O’Donnell admits the table doesn’t lie and Motherwell deserve to be ninth in the Premiership – even if performances haven’t yielded the results they feel they should have picked up so far this season.The Steelmen entered a five-week World Cup break with a 1-1 draw at St Johnstone on November 12 and the Premiership table doesn’t make fantastic reading for the Fir Park faithful, with the club just two points off of the relegation play-off spot and only five clear of rock bottom Dundee United after 16 games.On closer inspection, the middle of the pack is so tight a run of good results could propel ‘Well into the top six and only six points separate them from fourth-place Livingston.But amidst their five wins, there has been a frustrating 0-0 draw at home to Dundee United in which they did everything but score, a controversial 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen when Ricki Lamie was denied a clear penalty in the finals seconds and a 3-2 defeat to 10-man Hearts, where a point was snatched from their grasp by a late Lawrence Shankland penalty.There were also two battling displays against Celtic that both ended in narrow 2-1 defeats, so there are plenty of ‘what ifs’ for Motherwell to ponder during the shutdown.And Wishaw man O’Donnell said: “I think there have been some good performances where we maybe didn’t get what we deserved, but there’s also been a few bad ones where we got what we deserved.“Over the course of a season, the table doesn’t lie.“Just now we have been through a tough spell of games and we would have liked to have had more points on the board than we have.“But it is up to us to reset during the break, work hard and come back raring to go and hopefully kick on.”Boss Steven Hammell will use the break to get his