Assistant boss Stephen Frail says Motherwell beating Aberdeen is a ‘scalp’ at the best of times, let alone when the Dons are joint-top of the Premiership.
Jimmy Thelin’s side have four straight wins so far in the top flight, and are separated from defending champions Celtic by goal difference.
But Stuart Kettlewell’s Motherwell have also enjoyed a good start to the season and head to Pittodrie on the back of a last-gasp 2-1 win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park a fortnight ago.
That followed a 3-1 home win over Hearts in the league, and the Steelmen also knocked Kilmarnock out of the Premier Sports Cup last 16 with a 1-0 Fir Park victory.
And Frail says the international break last weekend didn’t mean Motherwell were sitting back. He said: “I know one or two clubs have given players an extended break or gone away for a few days, but we’ve been in working hard, doing a lot of video work, trying to get as much done as we can.
“The next couple of games coming up – Aberdeen away and Dundee United at home [Premier Sports Cup quarter-final] – are massive for us. We’ve got a huge game on Saturday against an Aberdeen team who have started the season with four wins.
“Any time you play Aberdeen it’s a ‘scalp’ when you beat them.They’re vying with Hearts to be the third-biggest club in Scottish football, and I think with the budget they have they should be at the top end of the table. To get something on Saturday, with the start they’ve made, it will be seen as that.”
Motherwell tackle Dundee United the following Friday in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final, and Frail reckons they’ve done well to be a game away from a Hampden semi-final.
“It’s brilliant,” said Frail. “We came through the group stages last season and then went out in the next stage to St Mirren, so to come through it against Kilmarnock was great. To now be one game away from Hampden is brilliant for us – but that has to go on the back-burner just now.”
Frail says the progress report on this season is decent, but not great. He explained: “We would hope to be in the top half of the table, coming into the break. I think we made an equally decent start last season and obviously didn’t sustain it as well as we would have liked to.
“We’re happy where we are. We’re content, we’re not happy, and we’re certainly not resting on it – the players have been in, working hard this week. But we are delighted with the last three results and three wins.
“We beat Kilmarnock, took that into the Hearts game, which was not only such a pleasing result but for the performance as well. We felt the players were right at it, on the ball and out of possession as well. With the way we pressed and how aggressive we were, we limited them to few chances.
“You then take the confidence from that, go to a very tough place in McDiarmid Park. Having not beat St Johnstone last season at all, to get that win was a great one for us, especially scoring in the last minute.
“We could have sat back and just took the 1-1 draw, but to force all those corners and attempts at goal in the last few minutes gave us that wee spur and injection to go and get the winner.”
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