Motherwell on a revenge mission

Oct 29 2008 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

MARK McGhee believes Motherwell did not deserve to get beaten by local rivals Hamilton in the Co-Operative Insurance Cup last month.

Now he is urging his players to prove him right at the weekend when the sides meet each other on league business for the first time in almost two decades.

Accies snatched a 2-1 extra-time win at Fir Park back in September in a stormy encounter that saw both sides reduced to ten men.

Stephen Craigan and Stephen Hughes also left the field injured during the tie in what was a miserable evening for the hosts.

“In the cup game they were helped by bad refereeing decisions as far as I’m concerned and a couple of injuries to our lads,” McGhee told the Wishaw Press.

“Without that I think we would have beaten them.

“I really believe that to be true but what I need the lads to do on Saturday is prove to me that was the case.”

He added: “I think the league does not lie.

“We are above them at the moment, they are bottom, so I think that says it all.”

Both sides go into Saturday’s much anticipated contest on the back of contrasting fortunes.

Hamilton’s last victory was against Motherwell in the cup. Since then they have lost four league matches on the bounce whilst The Steelmen have returned to form winning three of their last four SPL fixtures.

“It should be four out of four as far as I’m concerned as we shouldn’t have lost at Kilmarnock,” McGhee added.

“But momentum is a good thing and we are starting to build form.

“It will be a really hard game (on Saturday) and again I think it will be one goal either way that will win it.

“I don’t expect it to be anything other than a typical local derby.

“The pitch is good and hopefully the weather conditions will be slightly better than on Saturday (against Inverness).

“So I expect a good game I really do.”

Despite McGhee having to work with what is one of the smallest squads in the SPL, the 51-year-old expressed his delight at the impact his substitutes made last weekend in their come-from-behind win away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Darren Smith, Jim O’Brien and Marc Fitzpatrick came off the bench and provided much-needed impetus for the visitors who had gone a goal behind at the beginning of the second half.

The boss said: “At 1-0 we didn’t really look that convincing and for me at half-time one goal was going to win it either way.

“For the lads who were on the bench to have made the difference was really encouraging.

“They upped the tempo of the game and got us into a gear we hadn’t been in throughout.”

Meanwhile McGhee has revealed that Scott Leitch’s chest pains that resulted in his number two being rushed to hospital after Saturday’s game at Inverness was down to a sneeze.

Leitch was taken to Inverness and Raigmore Hospital where checks established he had not suffered a heart attack.

But he was kept in overnight as a precautionary measure.

McGhee said: “Scott was back in today (Monday) and is pretty sure it was a muscle thing.

“He remembers now that he had a really heavy sneeze prior to the game and feels that he strained something in his chest.

“It was scary at the time but it is fine now.”

The Steelmen will be on BBC Alba for the second successive week when Saturday’s afternoon derby clash will be recorded and shown in full on Saturday night from 7.30pm.