Our form this season has attracted praise from all quarters but we come up well short when measured against both Glasgow teams. A 3-0 loss at home to Rangers and the 4-0 defeat to Celtic provide ample evidence of the gap between Motherwell and the big two. No matter the popular view that they are both far from their best we don’t seem able to take a point from either.
McCall has been consistent in his view that our contest is with the other nine teams but that gives little comfort to those who follow the team to Ibrox or Parkhead.
To compound our woes Hutchison seems to have suffered another injury. According to McCall after the match, “He is on crutches and it looks as though he could be out long term as his ankle is up like a balloon but we’ll see how it looks on Monday. We can’t afford injuries to many players, but we will have to wait and see if it’s a crack or ligaments.”
The debate continues about the strategy to adopt when we visit their grounds. Do we ‘have a go’ and risk an embarrassing result or do we shut up shop and put our faith in packing the defence? It’s a question that a string of managers have struggled with but none has come up with the telling answer.
We can put that issue aside until Celtic visit us at the start of November. We have three home games coming up and if the style and confidence that typified our earlier encounters is on show we can hope to maintain our third place in the table and maybe look forward to at least another round in the League Cup.