Motherwell fans must be looking forward to Saturday’s visit to local rivals Hamilton with the same sort of trepidation you would have leading up to a spot of root canal treatment.
Bragging rights in Lanarkshire belonged firmly to Accies last season, particularly at New Douglas Park, where Motherwell were dumped out of the League cup on penalties, turned over 5-0 at New Year and went down meekly 2-0 late in the campaign when desperate for points in their battle against relegation.
The sides also traded 4-0 victories at Fir Park, and now Hamilton manager Martin Canning has urged his players to go all out to maintain the upper hand over their neighbours.
“It’s a great game for us and I don’t think there will be any motivation needed, it’s a game that as a player you want to be involved in,” he said.
“It’s a derby game, there will be a decent crowd here with a great atmosphere and for us off the back of a good performance against Aberdeen we will be going into it full of confidence.
“I’ve only seen them once against Hearts, and they did well enough in the game. They look a decent team with pace in the wide areas.
“You can’t compare their team now to the team that started last season, it’s almost completely different, they look stronger and it will be a difficult game.
“It will be a close game but hopefully we can have the measure of them again this year.”
Hamilton’s momentum from a fine start to the season was halted somewhat by the international break, and they were resoundingly beaten at St Johnstone last Saturday.
They followed that up with a narrow defeat at Aberdeen on Tuesday night, but Canning saw enough to believe they have gotten back on the right track.
“I thought the boys were excellent and we probably could have taken something from the game,” he said.
“Had we got a point I think it would have been a fair result.
“I think you take defeats differently, against Aberdeen the approach was right and the performance was good, so whilst it’s still difficult to take, it’s more acceptable if you like.
“The players applied themselves properly and tried their best to get themselves into the game, and were just unfortunate on the night, whereas on Saturday we lost sloppy goals and the standards weren’t where you would expect them to be.”
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