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Stenhousemuir celebrate shock cup win as Motherwell blame changes on 'beyond dangerous' situation Well brought back down to earth at Ochilview with first defeat for new boss Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson stressed he could not jeopardise his players’ health by overplaying them after his much-changed side suffered a shock 1-0 Premier Sports Cup defeat at Stenhousemuir. Euan O’Reilly netted the only goal in the 114th minute but Marvin Bartley’s side were well worth their place in the quarter-finals. Johansson made eight changes following his side’s Conference League win over HJK Helsinki, which came at a cost after Oscar Priestman suffered a calf issue which makes him a doubt for the play-off against Freiburg. Five academy graduates started and Motherwell improved as an attacking force after Johansson made some in-game changes, but did not do enough to win the game and Stenny put pressure on throughout. After suffering the first defeat of his Motherwell tenure, the Swede said: “The performance was not good. We didn’t have the coolness on the ball that we normally do. We didn’t have the strength in the second ball we normally do. Stenny were better than us and they deserve to go through. “Obviously, as a coach, you normally don’t want to make so many changes, but sometimes it’s needed. The players that started the game and the players that came on to the pitch are way good enough to be able to play better than we did. “I will make sure to also look ourselves in the mirror: the staff, myself, my decisions. Rotation is one point, but also how we approached the game in terms of tactics, speeches, everything.” When asked about his decision to rotate players Johansson said: “Listen, there are some players that are beyond dangerous in terms of overuse. We need to stop this cycle with the injuries that we have.” The latest is Priestman, who had made an impressive start to the season. “We don’t know the extent of the injury,” Johansson said. “It looks difficult for him to be involved on Thursday. Now I get questions of rotating too much. On the flip side, I also get the questions of where is Oscar. “Everyone is feeling the heavy load right now. We need to be responsible to not put the health of the players in too much jeopardy.” Marvin Bartley continued his unbeaten start to life as Stenny boss but gave all the credit to his players for their work rate, performance and attitude. “On the ball, off the ball, they were absolutely fantastic to a man in another game that we were written off before even playing,” Bartley said. “That will always add fuel to our fire. “We have a massive, massive belief of what we can do if we do things right, and we did that. One thing we do is make sure there is a buy-in from everybody. If there isn’t a buy-in from everybody then they won’t play for me. It’s that simple. “We’re in a very privileged position to be playing football and I say that to the players all the time. You have to buy into what we do and it’s a complete buy-in. “And the fitness as well. The boys hit that again and I couldn’t be prouder of them.” Comments Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.