Craig Clay says that he and the rest of the Motherwell squad have to alleviate the goalscoring burden from the shoulders of star strikers Louis Moult and Scott McDonald.

The midfielder has only netted once in 24 appearances for the Steelmen this season, and even the highest-scoring player from the middle of the park, Chris Cadden, has just three to his name.

Clay wants those rather damning statistics to change, and he says the Motherwell players are working hard on sharing the goals throughout the team.

“We know that Louis and Scott are class finishers and they’re big players for us but we need to take some off the weight off their shoulders,” Clay said.

“Myself and the other lads need to start chipping in as well because, if we do, that can only help us all.

“My best total for a season is three – with Grimsby last season – so, if I can keep my place in the team, I can maybe equal or better that because I’ve only scored once so far. That’s one thing I definitely need to improve on – I need to add goals to my game.”

The challenge at home to Dundee today might not be as stern as last weekend's visit to Celtic on paper, but Clay knows it will be a difficult afternoon with the visitors on a high from their win over Rangers on Sunday.

But the significance of the game in relation to whether Motherwell’s top-six ambitions make way for a battle just to stay in the division is not lost on him.

“We have a good run coming up now, although we can’t afford to do anything other than take it on a game-by-game basis,” he said.

“If you’re near the bottom then the games against the teams around you naturally take on a greater significance so Dundee is massively important for us.

“When I was at Chesterfield we won promotion to League One and then we were relegated straight away.

“I was just a bit-part player, though. I was 19 at the time and only made a few appearances that season.

“Even so, it wasn’t nice to be in the dressing room when that happened but our situation now is completely different from that because we’re not even contemplating going down.

“We’re all positive – we know we can go on that run and we’re confident we won’t be roped into the trouble at the bottom."

Meanwhile, Dundee manager Paul Hartley has rather predictably warned his players to guard against complacency following that fine win over Rangers.

Hartley said: "Last week's result was terrific; that has now gone. We all enjoyed last week, the players, staff, supporters, it was a good feeling for us.

"It had been a long time in beating Rangers but what we did stress to the players is that it can't be a one-off.

"We have to maintain that form and the high standards we set and hopefully we can have that from now until the end of the season."