STUART McCALL, the Motherwell manager, watched as Celtic got a taste of their own medicine on Wednesday night.
When you come up against a superior team on the wrong night, like his side did at Fir Park last Friday, there is precious little that can be done to turn the attacking tide.
"You look at what happened in midweek: if a top team are on their game, which Celtic were against us, that, unfortunately, can be a result that happens," admitted McCall. "Celtic did to us what Barcelona did to them. We know we could have done better in certain areas but we've got to hold our hands up and say they were really good. It's not acceptable, but it's understandable."
It is at least a result that can be swept comfortably under the carpet, in contrast to the William Hill Scottish Cup defeat by Albion Rovers which may stick out like an eyesore for a while yet. But McCall's week was still to worsen as a throat infection spread through the squad, permitting only disjointed training sessions.
It is in the goalkeeper position, though, which has caused the most consternation."Big Gunnar [Nielsen] took a strain to his thigh last week so he's not been able to train all week," said McCall.
"Of the five goalies we have on our books - two 16 year olds, an 18-year-old, Gunnar and Lee [Hollis] - only the 18-year-old has been able to train due to illness and injury. So big Marsh [Gordon Marshall, goalkeeper coach] has had to be in goal in our five-a-sides games.
"He's nearly 50, he started the week looking 40, and if you've seen him walking around the corridors now he's looking about 60. But it's given the boys a lot of confidence because they've scored a few goals!"
Simon Ramsden was one of those struck down with illness, but fortunately only missed a day of training. The full-back warned of the threat a wounded Ross County pose this afternoon. "We know that it's a massive game as they're fighting for their lives down there," he said.
"The standards we've set ourselves since I've been at the club . . . we're well aware we've slipped below what we should be doing and we've got a job to do [today]. A lot of people are doubting us at the minute, but we have to show them what we're all about and show a bit of character."
Richie Brittain, the Ross County captain, is not reading too much into Motherwell's dip in form, though, and is wary of taking the threat of the Fir Park side lightly. "They got off to a very good start and they are sitting at the top end of the table for all the right reasons," he said. "They are an exciting side.
"The game against Celtic was maybe a bit false. Hopefully, we can take parts of last Saturday [a 2-1 defeat by Kilmarnock] into [today] and if we have a bit more of a cutting edge, hopefully, we won't be far away."
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