Mark McGhee, the Motherwell manager, is looking forward to seeing how his players handle the expectation placed upon them when the travel to Kilmarnock tomorrow.
The man who has recently returned to Fir Park has had the unenviable task of taking on Celtic and Aberdeen in his first two games back in charge, a double header that yielded one point garnered at Pittodrie at the weekend in a credible 1-1 draw. While some would look upon these two fixtures as somewhat of a baptism of fire, McGhee argues that these games would be a ‘no brainer’ for his team to get up for.
Their trip to Rugby Park this weekend poses a different kind of challenge against a team that is currently sitting in the bottom half of the Ladbrokes Premiership. And the Scotland assistant is intrigued as to how his men will handle a different situation in Ayrshire.
“I’m not sure about more ball, more possession,” said McGhee. “But playing against Celtic and Aberdeen is a bit of a no brainer. If you don’t turn up against Celtic you get gubbed, and you don’t want that, particularly at home. So they turned up, worked their socks off and hung in there.
“Celtic may have had a penalty and we had a spell in the second half where we did better but ultimately we only lost 1-0 and we came out of that with a wee bit of pride and a little something to go on. But that was easy because it was Celtic and the atmosphere and everything. Then you had the Aberdeen game. Pittodrie is a great place to go to and if you don’t want to go to places like that against the likes of Aberdeen who are up there in the league then forget it. You want to be able to go and take on this challenge. It is easier to rise to that.
“Now we are going to Kilmarnock. They are not among the top teams in the league and they play on a plastic pitch so it would be easy to drop down a level. The big question is from my lot is can they reproduce what they did in the second half against Celtic and throughout the game against Aberdeen on a plastic pitch at Kilmarnock? That is the big question for them and it’s the one they have to answer.
“It remains to be seen but if they can, what I’ve witnessed in these two games isn’t just about it being Celtic and Aberdeen. It’s about the fact they have the ability, talent and desire to get better.”
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