MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson insists there will be no let-up from his Scottish Cup finalists in the five remaining league games so that his men are fighting fit when their big day at Hampden arrives.

As well as wanting to mathematically secure Premiership safety, Robinson says he has learnt from the build up to the club’s last Scottish Cup final in 2011 when the team suffered some heavy defeats.

He doesn’t want that to happen again, and has warned his men that they can’t afford to arrive at the national stadium in May without momentum behind them if they are going to shock Celtic and lift the cup.

“We can’t afford to have any complacency at all,” Robinson said. “We had a nice tough session on Tuesday, and I think the boys actually enjoyed it.

“We’ve tried to rest them at times, or mollycoddle them a little bit, but we play at an intensity and I don’t think we are good enough to turn it on and off like a tap. We have to plan sensibly, but we can’t drop it down and then turn it back on again for a match. We play with intensity and we train that way too.

“We need points to make sure we are safe first and foremost and people are playing for places. I don’t have a big enough squad, but players want to play.

“Momentum is massive. In 2011, when the club last reached the final, the team took a few beatings and maybe went in with a slightly negative mindset. We don’t want to do that. There will be opportunities due to illness and injuries and we’ll look at a few things, while having respect for our opponents.

“I certainly won’t be chopping and changing though.”

Some alterations to the line-up for tomorrow’s trip to Ross County may be unavoidable though for the Fir Park side.

“I’ve only got one fit striker,” Robinson explained. “George Newell is out for the rest of the season, Nadir Ciftci won’t make this weekend and Ryan Bowman has a sickness virus. We don’t even know if we’ll let Ryan travel with the squad in case he infects others.

“It’s disappointing for George. He’s had horrendous luck. It’s not like it’s muscle injuries, he’s hurt his foot, he’s had a broken cheekbone, and you can’t legislate for these things.

“We wanted to give him a run of games, but it won’t happen for him. He just needs to pick himself up and go again in pre-season.”

Robinson refused to discuss reported interest in bringing suspended Rangers striker Kenny Miller to the club during the summer as he is still under contract to the Ibrox outfit. But he was more than happy to spell out that one thing that definitely won’t be happening at Fir Park this summer is any of his players leaving on the cheap, with clubs hovering over stars like Cedric Kipre.

“We have a lot of assets at this club and sides are interested in five or six of them,” he said. “It shows the recruitment has been right and we are developing in the right way.

“Hopefully we don’t sell any of them - I don’t want to sell any of them. I know we are a selling club but I am trying to build a team to take forward. When you have 4000 fans you will always be a selling club, but it is on our terms.

“We don’t sell until we have a replacement lined up - just like with Louis Moult and Curtis Main. People told us we were mad not to sell at times but we waited to get Curtis and it was proved to be the right decision.

“Maybe in previous years we were under pressure to sell financially but that’s not the case.

“The board have backed me completely. We don’t have millions in the bank but they have put everything back in to the side and that’s allowed me to protect assets like Cedric.

“He came here as an young boy but he’s proved himself quickly and we wanted to put him on a wage that suggests he’s a first team regular.

“I’m not actively looking to sell him. It’s the nature of the game when you are talking about talented young players.

“He won’t go for a small amount of money. We’ve got him on a long contract and he’ll only go for what I value him at.”