Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson wants his side to revert to the tactics that brought them success last season and get more balls into the box.

Robinson’s side have suffered 1-0 defeats in three of their six Ladbrokes Premiership games and the Northern Irishman wants his players to give opposition defences more of a test.

Motherwell travel to face Hearts in the Betfred Cup quarter-finals on  Wednesday and Robinson is hopeful of reuniting the physical strike partnership that led them to last season’s William Hill Scottish Cup final, if Curtis Main passes a late fitness test.

“In the last lot of games we have had a lot of possession of the ball, a lot more possession than we did last season,” said Robinson, whose side lost to Celtic in both cup finals last season.

“But possession doesn’t win you football matches.

“So we need to get back to putting the ball into areas where teams don’t want to play in, don’t want to defend in. That’s the small percentages that win you football matches.

“So we have to do that. We have worked on that and we have spoken about it.

“We lost 1-0 against Aberdeen when there was nothing in the game, we lost 1-0 against Hearts on a poor decision from our defender and a poor decision from the referee.

“So it’s fine lines, and I think we can turn that around by playing like we did last season – by putting balls into areas and putting more crosses into the box.”

With loan striker Conor Sammon unable to face his parent club, Ryan Bowman looks set for his first start since suffering an ankle injury during the group-stage win over Queen of the South.

Robinson said: “I’ve not been able to put Main or Bowman together all season – one has been injured or not quite fit enough. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to do that and then we’ll see if we can get back to winning ways.

“We have got options but those two last season showed they were a handful for anyone. We are just waiting to see whether Curtis passes his fitness test or not.

“Danny (Johnson) has come in and scored some goals. He doesn’t quite have the physical presence of the other two but it certainly gives me options.”