Something is not quite right at Fir Park.
The club is still sickly, still suffering from that painful Scottish League Cup loss against Aberdeen. Talking to the management and the players leaves the impression that last week's victory over Hibernian conquered only one of the early stages of Motherwell's grief. In truth, their knock-out malady can probably only be banished by the cooling tonic of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
"We were very disappointed in the outcome of the Aberdeen game," admitted assistant manager Kenny Black. "So the result against Hibs was more important than anything. We didn't play particularly well but the three points was massive for us. It helped us get over the midweek disappointment."
Before cup amends can properly be made - starting with a trip to Lanarkshire rivals Albion Rovers - Dundee United visit Fir Park today in what should be an entertaining encounter between two sides who like to attack. "I watched them against Celtic and Inverness and they did extremely well," Black said. "They're showing real consistency after a shaky start and they don't concede many goals. They're a real threat on the counter attack and it'll be a big test for us. We are similar teams, with match-winners, and I hope we have more than them."
The home side are faced with cobbling together some sort of makeshift defence, with Steven Hammell and Simon Ramsden doubtful and Shaun Hutchison out suspended after his red card last week. One man's indiscretion is another man's opportunity, though, and 20-year-old Fraser Kerr is preparing to step into the breach. "If Ramsden is still injured . . ." he said. "You don't want to see team-mates get injured but it's a good opportunity for me, so I want to grasp it and play well if I get the chance."
Back in town for good after three years at Birmingham City - where he crossed paths with James McFadden - Kerr is happy to be home. "I've no regrets about going down there," he said. "It was a good life experience. It was daunting at the time but it builds character and made me stronger for it."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article