IN the relationship between Mark McGhee and Louis Moult, it’s more of a case of ‘Do as I say and not do as I did’ for the Motherwell manager as he nurtures the striking talents of the man who is currently carrying the goalscoring can at Fir Park.
McGhee stood in the home dugout last Saturday, but in his mind he was transported back down memory lane by what was unfolding in front of his eyes. As Moult rattled in four goals against Hamilton Academical in a 4-2 win, his gaffer couldn’t help be reminded of a similar feat of his own just a mere 39 years ago.
On a dimly light night at Cappielow, Morton’s McGhee bagged a quarter of goals against, funnily enough, Hamilton on the way to a 4-1 win. While the similarities of what took place on the field that evening to what occurred at Fir Park on Saturday, the current Motherwell manager laughed at how he hopes Moult’s pre-match preparations were different to what he did back in the 1970s.
“I’m actually embarrassed about it because my good friend Andy Ritchie gave me a lift back from Greenock after training at night,” he explained. “We were playing Hamilton the next day and Andy took me to noise up a couple of his mates in one of the Hamilton pubs before he dropped me off.
“It was the only time in my life that I had a couple of drinks before a game - a couple of beers, I’m ashamed to say. And the next night I scored four!
“The next morning I woke up and I'll be honest and say I felt awful - I did not feel like playing a football match. I asked my mum to phone Benny [Rooney, the Morton Boss] and make an excuse for me, but she refused. So, even though I had done that, I had to go and play the game.
“I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. But worse than that, I understand that Newcastle were there that night and signed me on the back of that performance!
“Louis definitely wasn’t out last Friday night but I did tell him that story in the dressing room.”
McGhee has been understandably encouraged in the last week as Moult not only looks like recapturing the form that got him 18 goals in his first season at Motherwell, but bettering it. Already with seven to his name having only played four games, you can hardly blame him.
The former Stoke City trainee is a well-read student of the game. Prior to coming to Motherwell a time in non-league football forced the pro-active striker to begin his coaching badges as he looked to broaden his horizons.
It is an outlook that has clearly served him well.
“He is a bright lad, who understands everything you tell him. But I’m not quite sure how much he is bothered about what others have to say,” laughed McGhee, whose side will go to Firhill to take on Partick Thistle in the Ladbrokes Premiership tomorrow.
“He knows how it has to be done, which is fine by me if he keeps producing goals in a game.”
Moult’s return from injury has seen him net five goals in two, but McGhee is still waiting for the return of another key cog of his Motherwell machine. Midfielder Carl McHugh sustained a gruesome head knock in the opening day of the season at Kilmarnock and a month and a half on has yet to reappear.
It is an unprecedented length of time that the Motherwell manager has had to deal with during his career, but he has underlined that he is content to be patient in the interests of the player’s health.
He said: “Carl McHugh is back and is a bit better. But he was showing signs of being better last weekend but then had symptoms again after a bit of activity. When that happens, there is a clinical period where he has to be set aside again. Until it all clears up that is all we can do. He is certainly making progress.
“I’ve never seen a concussion that caused problems for so long. And we have two here just now, because the young boy Moore is having the same experience after a blow against Ayr United.
“It’s very strange. We joked last week that it is the new metatarsal, but it is serious. And it is extremely serious if they come back too early and get a second bump. So we won’t take any risks whatsoever.”
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