McGhee denies top six ambitions

Mar 11 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

MARK McGhee refuses to admit his side are in a battle to reach the top six and has instead focused his thoughts on catching Saturday’s opponents Dundee United in fourth place.

Motherwell’s loss to Hearts last week saw the Steelmen drop out the top six to Hibernian on goal difference and McGhee now wants the Jambos to win the remainder of their league matches as he feels they have no chance of catching the third-placed club.

This weekend’s match can see the Fir Park side reduce the gap with Dundee United to four points if they can secure a much-needed victory.

A defeat however would leave them ten points behind Craig Levein’s team.

“We are not even looking about getting into the top six,” a bullish McGhee told the Wishaw Press this week.

“There are half a dozen of us in contention for the fourth place and that is the way I am looking at it. Anything else is an irrelevance.

“We are still in the midst of a great run and have lost one of the last ten games.

“We played brilliantly at Hearts and I thought we were really unlucky and I think it was very unjust that we lost the game.

“But these things happen and you have got to just get on with it and we have got to pick up the same form against Dundee United and push on from there.”

He continued: “I am also looking for Hearts now to push on.

“We are looking for Celtic, Rangers and Hearts to beat everyone and for us to chase them up in fourth place.”

Motherwell produced arguably their best performance of the season against Dundee United at Tannadice in January.

First half goals from Marc Fitzpatrick, Maros Klimpl and David Clarkson set them on their way to an emphatic 4-0 win with Chris Porter, currently starring for Derby County in the Championship, netting the fourth.

And McGhee fully expects the Terrors to set out with a defensive formation when they visit Fir Park this weekend.

He said: “I expect they will want to have some sort of revenge for that (4-0 defeat).

“I saw them at Falkirk last week and they played a 4-5-1 and had nine or ten players behind the ball.

“I expect it to be something similar. They’re a bit cautious at the moment. They don’t seem to be too expansive.”

He continued: “We have to make sure that there is no backlash in the sense that we don’t get caught cold. We have got to come out the traps, try and establish ourselves in the game as quickly as possible and see where it takes us.”

Left winger Craig Conway scored the decisive penalty in United’s win over Falkirk and proved a constant menace for the Bairns.

But with the return of right back Paul Quinn, after serving a two-match suspension, McGhee believes the former Motherwell skipper has it in his armoury to cope with the midfielder’s trickery.

Victory would give Motherwell a massive boost with just four games after this weekend’s fixtures to go before the split.

Nevertheless the former Wolves gaffer does not feel that a win is essential in his pursuit of a European place.

He said: “If you look at the table if we were to draw the game I think it would still be possible to get above them but obviously if we beat them then it is a big step towards getting above them.

“So we want to try and not lose the game (against United), that is for sure.”