St Johnstone will visit Fir Park on Saturday as this stop-start league season reaches round nine. If both teams play to current form this could be a desperate affair.
Motherwell's recent LLLLD run has an eerie similarity to the DLLLL series produced by the Perth Saints. Both teams deserve no more than their bottom half positions and badly need the boost that would come with a win. At best we should have a hard fought contest.
The manager had plenty to think about when the teams last met
The visitors woes have included 5-1 and 6-0 defeats in the harsh Aberdeen, Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Celtic series and they will hope that their trip to Motherwell may be the start of a less stressful sequence of fixtures.
Tommy Wright will miss the threat offered by Danny Swanson thanks the midfielder's red card last outing but the experienced manager (Saturday is reported to be his 199th game in charge) has a way of delivering results against the flow and we will have to be alert.
Stephen Robinson has spoken of the need for changes and this may be the opportunity to inject fresh young legs into the fray. Carl McHugh will serve his one match suspension on Saturday but others may be rested. Gael Bigirimana was involved in the Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers while Allan Campbell and Chris Cadden were involved (again) with the Scotland U21 double header. Might it be time to move them to the bench and try a different set in midfield? Frear, Grimshaw and Turnbull would be willing replacements.
We stopped the rot against Livingston a fortnight ago to take a point. Three on Saturday would close the gap on St Johnstone and most likely increase our distance from the bottom. Let's hope for an upturn with a 2-1 win.