In October the team took 6 points from a possible 12 in the league. Wins over St Mirren and Dundee United were balanced by losses to Rangers and to Hamilton. Our neighbours were able to celebrate their first top flight win at Fir Park since 1938! The fifth game last month provided the CIS quarter final victory over United.
This weekend’s game in Inverness will complete the first of three cycles before the split and we can look forward to the encounter with some confidence. Despite a small first team squad we are in third place with an average of 1.6 points per game. Five wins, one draw and four losses have given Motherwell a start to the season that we would have grabbed in early July.
Can we do better in the upcoming month? There are five fixtures scheduled before December’s chill arrives. We are on the road to Inverness, Easter Road and Paisley while St Johnstone and Hearts come to us. There are no Saturday fixtures at Fir Park in November. The Perth team come on Wednesday 10th and our last game of the month is on Sunday 28th for the $ky game against the Tarts with a 2.15pm kick off.
How will we be placed after those five games? If we were to maintain the same rate of return as was generated in our opening ten fixtures then our haul would be 8 points from 15 giving a total of 24 after 15 rounds. Last season we were 4th with 17 points after 10 games but Gannon’s slump then took effect and when game 15 had finished we had only 20 points on the board and the slide down the table had started.
If we are to maintain our top six ambitions then 8 points from the next 15 has to be a minimum but expectations will be for a better return. We will go into every match in November with a realistic chance of winning unless a run of injuries robs us of key players. Indeed, with opening games in the happy hunting ground of Inverness and against St Johnstone, we could be well on the way to the target by the middle of next week!