By SCOTT MULLEN

LIONEL AINSWORTH went from the happiest day of his life to sheer misery within the space of 48 hours.

The Motherwell winger became a father last Wednesday night when his fiancee Laura gave birth to their baby girl Sienna Lilly at Wishaw General Hospital.

It was a landmark moment for the proud pair, with mother and daughter being allowed home the next day to start their life as a family.

However, football has a habit of bringing you back down to earth with a bump. For Ainsworth, it came in the form of Hamilton Accies.

Just two days after welcoming the new born into the world Motherwell's old local rivals dished out a 2-0 defeat that leaves the Steelmen staring a relegation play-off place in the face.

Speaking exclusively to SportTimes, the Well winger opened up about a week of great contrast that he'll never forget.

"Psychologically it's a sore one to take. Massively," said Ainsworth. "I went from being on top of the world to being so flat within the space of two days.

"We had our little girl on Wednesday morning, but it still hurts to lose. I hate losing. You can't get it back now against them until next season, if we stay in the league.

"Laura and our daughter got out of hospital and home the night before the game, which was fun! I'll enjoy that but I need to take home the disappointment from work in my head. It's hard to shake it off.

"I can't project it there, I need to put things right on the pitch."

Turning his attention to football matters, Ainsworth revealed the Motherwell dressing room was left down in the dumps after Friday's blow to their survival chances.

As a result of other games over the weekend, Ian Baraclough's team missed the opportunity to close the gap on 10th-placed Ross County to three points as they spurned a host of chances at New Douglas Park.

"It was absolutely gutting if I'm being honest. You never want to lose, but especially to your closest rivals," said Ainsworth.

"Looking at the chances we had it was just one of those nights. A couple of games before it was the opposite and we won 4-0.

"As a personal performance I could have done a lot better, as a team we could have as well.

"It's gone now and we need to look to the next four games now and do what we know we can do."

The focus now falls on the visit of County to Fir Park this weekend.

While a win will half the margin separating the two teams, defeat could see it stretched to a nine-point chasm with only nine left to play for.

Ainsworth knows the importance of the tie, however, he was honest in his opinion that their last two games have had a similar tag - and Motherwell lost them both.

He said: "We must show the ability, drive and passion we have. Fortunately we have four more games to do it in.

"With the run that we've had recently every game is the biggest of the season.

"It's unbelievable when you look at our run this season. We produce on the training ground every day and we know can do it in games.

"The defeat against Partick [2-0 at Firhill] was a sore one as I don't think we deserved to lose it and now this. But we need to stay positive and go again.

"When you go 1-0 down you think 'right, c'mon' then the second one goes in. It's gut-wrenching.

"We just have to look forward to next week. The lads were down after the game, of course they were. But we have some strong characters who will drive us through."