The specks of grey hair atop Keith Lasley's head hint of someone who has been around the block a few times.

The specks of grey hair atop Keith Lasley's head hint of someone who has been around the block a few times. Four hundred times, to be exact.

Fourteen years after he made his debut in claret and amber, Lasley notched up his fourth century of games for Motherwell in a service littered with highlights.

The 35-year-old has reached the Scottish Cup final and the League Cup semi-final during his time at the club, while also having led them as captain into Europe on several different tours, most notably two years ago as the club contested Champions League qualifiers for the first time in their history against Panathanaikos.

Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Celtic was the fixture that tipped him over the 400 mark and, speaking about the milestone, Lasley said he had been humbled by the reception he received all those years on from the day the Motherwell support first greeted him.

"Someone made me aware of it a week or so ago and I knew it would be against Celtic," said the Motherwell captain, who made his debut in a 2-0 loss at Ibrox back in 2000, precisely 14 years ago today, during his first spell at the club.

"From my point of view, it's a proud moment," he said. "It was great to get a wee ovation from the boys in the corner of the East Stand who have supported the club greatly over the last few years.

"It's fair to say it's been a rollercoaster over my time here. Looking back you have the highs of cup finals and the European trips; it's certainly been a privilege to have been a part of it.

"My first game was against Rangers at Ibrox. So it kind of topped it off by going full circle against the other half of the Old Firm for my 400th. Unfortunately I didn't win that game either!

"In all seriousness, though, it has been great. If someone told me when I joined the club that I'd have played 400 times I would have struggled to believe them. Hopefully, there is still much more to come."

While Lasley's achievements at Fir Park are plentiful, especially in recent years given Motherwell's consistent high finishes, turning their season around now would rank high among them.

Following the defeat by Celtic, they remain two points ahead of the bottom clubs St Mirren and Ross County, with the latter coming to town on Saturday, before the Lanarkshire side travel to the former the following week.

Wins from those fixtures would go a long way towards addressing a slide which has taken Motherwell perilously close to a relegation play-off place.

While County have battled gamely without being able to win and turmoil surrounds St Mirren following Tommy Craig's departure as manager yesterday, Lasley stresses that Motherwell cannot afford to look at struggles of others while they have their own problems to solve.

"There's still a long way to go in the season but every game is big for us at the moment. We're all fighting. We're just trying to get ourselves up the table. We are playing a lot of the teams in and around us in the league so, if we can put a couple of wins together, we can start to climb out of it. It's just about getting back into training and making sure we achieve that."

He added: "We can't afford to keep too much of an eye on elsewhere, though. If we don't win our games we'll stay where we are regardless. A few wins can give you a bit of daylight from teams around you but our focus has to be on ourselves. With the way things are going just now that's what we need to do to."

Meanwhile, an announcement over who will become the new manager is expected within the next 48 hours. All six candidates for the job have been interviewed, with the final line-up understood to comprise the caretaker Kenny Black, Kenny Shiels, Terry Butcher, Mitchell van der Gaag, Rob Maaskant and Ian Baraclough, an Englishman who led Sligo Rovers to their first League of Ireland title in 35 years before being sacked in June.