MOTHERWELL midfielder Louis Moult believes that the Fir Park side are capable of digging themselves out of their current lowly league position.

The Lanarkshire side lost 2-1 at Dens Park on Saturday afternoon, with Stephen Pearson’s late goal giving the scoreline a more credible look.

The defeat – the sixth from the 10 games the club have played this season – leaves them toiling in fourth bottom position.

The appointment of a permanent manager will obviously be regarded as key to engineering some stability at the club but so far as Moult is concerned, he believes the current squad are better than results would suggest.

“I think we tried to play in right manner,” he said. “In the first half we tried to get the ball down and I got hold of the ball quite often which I enjoyed.

“But us players need to forget about the manager issue and just worry about winning a game.

“We are disappointed. That’s two sloppy goals and then we got one back to give us a chance. We were always in the game, I thought, and I always felt we were going to score. But it was sloppy goals that we conceded.

“First and foremost, the manager situation is nothing to do with us. We are football players and need to get on with our job. And that’s winning games, which we have not managed to do.”

While Saturday’s scoreline was more or less a fair reflection of the game, Motherwell did have their chances.

Stefan Johnson missed a cracking opportunity shortly after Dundee had bagged the opener when Scott McDonald teed him up, and it is symptomatic of a team in distress that these opportunities tend to pass them by.

Moult, though, remains upbeat that so long as the team are capable of creating those openings that there will be a way of clambering out of their current predicament.

“That’s it, it’s the final third,” he lamented. “I think we are doing good build up, with all those passes and we just waiting for the chances to drop. It definitely will happen.

“It’s happened already in some games. I’ve managed to get on to the scoresheet. But we need to turn more of those final balls into goals.”

Saturday’s game at Dens Park was an ugly affair, particularly in an opening half in which very little of note took place, other than a spate of substitutions due to injuries from both sides.

Moult was criticised by Paul Hartley in the aftermath of the game for his tackle on Dundee midfielder Greg Stewart, whom Hartley claimed has been singled out for special treatment by opponents.

Stewart was forced to hobble off after the incident and Hartley was fuming in the aftermath that the player is not given enough protection.

Moult, though, was adamant that there was no intent on his part to take out the player who was short-listed for the PFA Player of the Year last term.

“I’ve definitely caught him,” he said. “But there’s no intent. I’ve seen the ball and tried to nick it that happens in football but I didn’t mean to catch him.

“He’s a good player and we’re all aware of that but it’s just one of those things. If I’m being honest, I didn’t know it was him that I tackled.

“If it had been anyone I’d have tackled him. I thought the ball was there to win. But he was a little bit quicker than me.”

Moult has also insisted that there are no divisions in the Fir Park dressing room among the players who were signed by Ian Baraclough this summer and the long-standing players.

“There’s no uncertainty among the new boys,” he said. “The boys get on well and speak to each other. Obviously Ian brought a few of us in, like myself, and there’s a fantastic togetherness in the changing room and now we just need to get it right on the pitch.”