Mark McGhee feels the season has been a bit “stop-start” so far, but is hopeful of a good run over the next few weeks.
First up for the Steelmen is an important clash with Inverness CT, followed by fellow Northerners Ross County on Saturday.
Speaking to the press ahead of his sides game against the Caley Jags tomorrow night, McGhee admitted that the frequent breaks in recent weeks have come as both a hindrance and a blessing.
The manager said: “It’s been a crazy season really and we’ve got another break in a couple of weeks for the international team, but it does seem stop-start, stop-start this season and then we have the winter break to come as well.
“What we do have though is three games against teams in our region of the league where we’ll be hoping to take some points.
[pullquote]What we do have though is three games against teams in our region of the league where we’ll be hoping to take some points.[/pullquote]
“Then of course we have a break after that and then it’s a case of seven games in December so these are three games we could well be doing with taking points from.”
He added: “The breaks seem to be coming around quicker and are more pronounced than they were last season, and I know that it’s not different but we just have to be careful with the players.
“It seems like they’re getting a lot more down time this season so we have to be sure we’re keeping everyone fully fit and sharp.”
While the breaks have disrupted rhythm, they’ve also allowed for players to recover from injury.
McGhee said: “In between times we’ve had injuries to Louis Moult, Stevie Hammell and Joe Chalmers, so we’ve managed to benefit from the fact that we’ve not had to play those games.
“If the Aberdeen game was on we would’ve went in to that with a few missing so we have to accentuate the positives. While it has been stuttered hopefully that means we’ll go in to these important games with our strongest team.”
Tomorrow night’s match will be an important fixture for both sides, as the Fir Parkers sit just one point behind Richie Foran’s Inverness.
[pullquote]My mission here is to develop players and keep us in the league. Last year we finished fifth which was a fantastic achievement and if we finish fifth this year it may be a more fantastic achievement.[/pullquote]
The ‘Well boss said: “When you look at the table and see where we are I like to think we’re a little bit better than that and I think that Inverness will think the same.
“When you look at their team, they’re a robust team with a good physical presence and they’re going to be a tough team for anyone to break down, but they’ve not quite yet fired on all cylinders, so we’ve just got to guard against that and assume that they can come here and find their form.”
Looking at the season ahead, the boss looked at the inclusion of youngsters at Parkhead as an example of his aims here with Motherwell.
He said: “My mission here is to develop players and keep us in the league. Last year we finished fifth which was a fantastic achievement and if we finish fifth this year it may be a more fantastic achievement.
“At Parkhead I got Ross MacLean in the team, I got Jack McMillan in the team, I had Jake Hastie on before the end and I had David Ferguson on at left-back to cover for Jack when he was feeling the pace. That is what our mission here is, to get these young players in the team.”