Scott McDonald, like all good strikers, knows the value in having a selfish streak. After his double had helped to all but relegate Dundee United on Tuesday night, he revealed that reminding himself of that was crucial to his deadly performance.
The Motherwell forward was at times deployed in midfield upon his return to Fir Park under former manager Ian Baraclough, and recently has been seen dropping deep in order to receive the ball despite sometimes playing as a lone frontman.
McDonald realised that his attacking threat had been blunted, but a quiet word with himself prior to the crucial relegation clash at Tannadice saw the old predatory instincts resurface to give a timely reminder of the player who once put the European champions to the sword during his pomp at Celtic.
He said: “It was a bit like in my heyday, it was nice. I’ve definitely still got it.
“I said to myself before the game that I had to take more risks and get some more shots away, and thankfully I did that tonight.
“Sometimes you’ve got to be a bit more selfish, like with the turn for my second goal and taking it individually rather than passing it wide, and thankfully it paid off.
“I don’t know how far out it was, but I had to take it in a little bit further! I hadn’t scored many from there for a long time, so that was really nice.
“Obviously it gets the clouds away a little bit and suddenly the sun starts to come through again. It’s been quite dark the last couple of weeks, but it’s amazing what a win can do, and we’re obviously delighted with the performance and the win, which is the most important thing.
“I think you could tell it was a high-pressure game in the first-half. It was always going to be a scrap down the bottom between these teams, and it wasn’t too dissimilar to the game at Partick Thistle a couple of weeks back. But we don’t care about performances. Three points is the most important thing and when you win games it breeds confidence, without question.
“We got the three points and suddenly everything looks a lot brighter.”
McDonald is at a loss to explain why Motherwell have struggled so badly at times this season, but he hopes that the win over Mixu Paatelainen’s seemingly doomed outfit can be the catalyst for them to focus an assault on the top six, rather than worrying about a successive relegation play-off come May.
After passing an examination of their character following Saturday’s dire defeat to Kilmarnock, McDonald has set his sights on closing the gap on seventh-placed St Johnstone further at McDiarmid Park on Saturday.
“We know what we’ve got in there, it’s just a case of putting it all together,” he said.
“We’ve got some fantastic individual players that can change games on their head. It’s just a case of putting it all together as we seen in December.
“It’s believing in it at times, sometimes when results or decisions don’t go your way the pressure builds, and it’s a test of your character.
“Obviously we failed that on Saturday, but we didn’t fail that tonight which was great to see. We’ve got another big one on Saturday and we start looking forward to that challenge.
“We’ve got to take it one game at a time. From where we are now to where we were on Saturday obviously it’s a massive positive and we’ve got to take that.
“You don’t want to get ahead of yourself, but if we win on Saturday then it’s another good step forward for us.”
One of the people McDonald is undoubtedly referring to when he discusses players in the Motherwell dressing room that can change games is James McFadden.
The former Scotland hero was handed a surprise start by Mark McGhee on Tuesday evening, but he firmly dispelled any doubts over his inclusion with just over an hour packed full of craft and invention in behind the front two of McDonald and Louis Moult.
His set-piece delivery for Stephen McManus to head the opening goal on the stroke of half-time was vital, and McDonald says that his contribution for the remainder of the season in separating often evenly-matched teams could prove equally as crucial.
“You know his qualities,” McDonald said.
“He’s probably not match-fit yet, he hasn’t started a game in a long, long time, but his delivery for the goal made the difference.
“Maybe we’ve been lacking someone of that quality when the final delivery from set-pieces is so important, and that was the difference [against United].”
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