Motherwell’s stand-in boss Kenny Black is ignoring speculation regarding the appointment of a new manager to concentrate only on Saturday’s game.
The Steelmen are at home to champions and current Premiership leaders Celtic, live on Sky Sports with a 12.45pm kick-off at Fir Park.
A number of names have been linked with the post made vacant when Stuart McCall resigned last month, with his former assistant Black holding the fort ever since.
The game against Celtic comes a week after Motherwell exited the Scottish Cup at the hands of Dundee United but the former Airdrie manager saw enough in that tie to look forward to facing Ronny Delia’s side.
Black said: “Last Saturday was certainly a lot better than the 90 minutes up at Inverness Caledonian Thistle the week before. We had gone up there after a 1-0 Premiership success over Dundee United and hoping that we had maybe turned a corner but our performance in the Inverness game was poor and we lost 3-1.
“Everyone was happy with the first half against United when we managed to get in front through Henrik Ojamaa. Some of our play in the second half was good as well but unfortunately it was a cup tie and you do not get a second chance in them.
“United are a good side, who have plenty of attacking options, but we are disappointed at the two goals we lost as they were both from headers from about six yards out. It was pleasing that we had turned our performance around from the last game however it was not enough to put us into the next round.
“We have to look at the positives and take belief from that performance into the Celtic game. It is an old cliché but all we have to focus on now is the Premiership and remaining as a top-flight club.
“The season has not panned out as we would have liked but there was an improvement in performance against Dundee United and we need to take that into the Celtic game.”
“No-one gives us a chance of doing anything in this game but I am sure that the players will give their all to get a result. We went to Parkhead earlier in the season and got a 1-1 draw in a game where John Sutton scored early on.
“It has not been a great campaign but we will look to put the positives from the last game against Celtic and the two performances against Dundee United together and build on that. Of course, we will try and win the game and we have a decent record against Celtic in recent seasons.
“Clubs usually accept that anything from a game like this is a bonus and we are no different. However, we know that we have to be at our best for the full 90 minutes to get anything.”
Craig Stewart
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