Our hosts have had a horrible season so far. With half the campaign gone they are isolated at the bottom of the league table without a win since October. After 19 attempts they have mustered a miserable 10 points; four draws one home and one away win (against us in August).
Both clubs took the view that a change of manager was needed in the autumn. Motherwell have made better progress with the new boss and are now 11 points above United with a game in hand.
Paatelainen’s team depends almost exclusively on the scoring talent of Billy McKay for their meagre goal tally. When Rankin found the net against Inverness last week he was the first player other than McKay to get his name on the score sheet since August.
McGhee may have to remind his charges that a few good results guarantee nothing about Saturday’s game. An excellent performance against Hearts and wins home to Dundee and away to Celtic suggest that confidence should be high but we have to expect a tough game against a team that already has to be worried about relegation.
There would seem to be little reason to change the starting eleven and we can expect Moult and McDonald to lead the 4-4-2 formation that has served us well in the last few weeks.
Ben Hall retained his place last week and he finds himself in with a chance of three consecutive win bonuses – a prize few Motherwell players take on their debut.
While the form book suggests that an away win is probable ‘Well fans know our occasional habit of throwing a lifeline to those in peril. Such lapses in concentration have not yet appeared under the charge of Mark McGhee and we’ll hope that he can work some more magic to cheer us up on the homeward journey following a 2-1 win.
Remember our last trip to Tannadice?