It has taken Motherwell and their manager Stuart McCall a long time to get over the club's December double defeat by Albion Rovers and Celtic.

But now, finally, they have their chance to avenge some of the pain of those seven traumatic days - their septimana horribilis in an otherwise stellar season - with a visit to the champions.

"You always have a dilemma going to Celtic Park," McCall admitted. "It's easy for people to say: 'go and have a go, there's nothing to lose'. But there's a game of football to lose. We've been [there] in the last couple of seasons and got quite close. We've got to carry more of an attacking threat. We've got to look at that, but likewise we don't want to be too open.

"The backbone of their team, with the goalkeeper and the back four, they've hardly changed it. And they can cut you open at any time, as they proved out here. But we've also got to keep in mind that we're on a good run ourselves; the majority of players are playing at the top of their game."

Celtic, of course, spent £1.9m on a new midfielder this week, Stefan Johansen; Motherwell had to scramble and send two players out on loan in order to extend Henri Anier's stay. Two further injuries - to Simon Ramsden and Lee Hollis - have stretched the squad further. "I'm a little bit envious because we've got what we've got," McCall admitted. "The only player we will bring in is a goalkeeper if we can."