LIAM GRIMSHAW didn’t have a celebration lined up. Why would he? After all, when you’ve never scored at any point previously in your professional career, having a carefully-choreographed routine up your cuff would seem as superfluous as a sunroof on a submarine.

Not that the Motherwell man would have had much time to execute any dance moves anyway given the haste with which he was engulfed by his team-mates after breaking his scoring duck to deliver a precious first away win of the season away to Livingston. It was worth the wait.

“I think everyone’s been waiting for me to score,” he admitted. “It was a great moment. I should have done it before now really. But everything happens in its own time and hopefully there are a few more to follow.

“I’m not the celebration type to be honest with you. And the best thing is it was a goal that counted for something, it wasn’t just a consolation. To get a winning goal was a great feeling and all over the pitch I think we deserved the victory.

“I was playing midfield on Saturday so that gave me a bit more of a licence to get forward. You find yourself in forward positions a bit more often, getting into the box and things like that.

“Goals is definitely something I’ve been looking to add to my game. It’s not quite as easy from right-back but from midfield you need to be contributing with at least a few. You need to help the team out so if this is something I can add to my game then great. Hopefully that’s the first of a few.”

Grimshaw’s wait for a first career goal wasn’t helped by an extended spell on the sidelines due to the onset of glandular fever that saw him train once with new boss Graham Alexander before being consigned to his bed for eight months.

“I couldn’t do anything for a while, I was completely floored with it. I got good support at home from my family and the club were brilliant with me too, the physio, doctor, management and staff were all great.

“They didn’t shut the door on you, they always made sure you were alright. I wasn’t in any fit state to train and they helped bring me back up to fitness. I’ve played for the last two weeks now, 90 minutes, which is good so now it’s about keeping going and trying to have an input in the team.

“It was only fairly recently that I thought I was finally over it all. I managed to get away to Portugal for a break when we were off – the weather definitely helped! And that’s when I started to feel a bit better and could do a bit of jogging and things like that. So it’s only really been the last couple of months that I’ve felt better but the main thing is I’m healthy now.”

It was Sean Kelly’s turn to need medical attention at the weekend after being clattered by his own goalkeeper Max Stryjek as they both looked to clear a dangerous Motherwell attack.

Kelly was mercifully not seriously injured, the only lasting pain stemming from Livingston’s third league defeat of the season.

“I just got hit on the side of the head and then he landed on me as well,” explained the former St Mirren defender. “It was more a precaution than anything, I wasn’t too bad. I was fine to carry on.

“It’s part of football, isn’t it, especially if you are playing centre half. You get plenty of dunts.

“It’s been a hard start to the campaign for us. The first game of the season was away to Ibrox and that was difficult, then we lose to Aberdeen and feel we deserved more and here we were unlucky to lose. But we can’t keep having hard luck stories every week.”

Kelly was hopeful that brother Liam – in goals for Motherwell on Saturday – would go easy on him in the week ahead.

“We don’t really talk much about football, it stays out of the house,” he revealed. “We have enough people asking us about it wherever we go, so if one more of us did that we’d go demented. There wouldn’t be chat from my side if we had won, but I can’t guarantee that from him!”