Both teams are enjoying runs of four games without loss but while Motherwell have moved clear in second place with a WWDW sequence our hosts are fixed to the bottom despite a gutsy DWDD. Their spirits have been lifted since John Brown took up residence and he’ll have his players fired up for our visit.
The new manager may have rattled the camaraderie in the home dressing room and the well publicised dropping of Rab Douglas may yet be causing some ripples. At the other end of the team Baird has scored in three of the last four outings and they will be hoping for a repeat of the goal that Ryan Conroy produced against United in the derby a fortnight ago.
The Motherwell squad will try to recreate the blistering performance that dismantled Hibs in our last outing. That second half will showing will be hard to match and that it was achieved without Lasley and Law speaks volumes for their replacements on that day.
Kenny Black has been looking after the early week preparations for this game but he'll be joined by the returning internationalists and the far travelled manager as the match-day plan is assembled. Kerr had to return early from U21 duty but with Law and Lasley fit we should be able to field our best eleven.
The boredom of the international break was broken with the news of some of our younger players agreeing to extend their stay at Fir Park but the focus is now on Stuart McCall to join them in committing to the club for the next few years. Expectation is growing that the good news will come before Saturday and, if so, the feel good factor should give us a boost on the way to a 2-0 victory.
Remember our last tip to Dens Park?