Motherwell: The View From the Opposition

With one defeat in the last six for Motherwell and sitting nicely in the top 6, it was time to catch up with the guys at MFC Podcast to ask them a few questions.

Since our last match, it’s been two wins, three draws and three defeats for Motherwell and you now sit in the top 6. Compared to your previous form before facing us last time around, you must be happy with the way the club have played, specially since coming back from the winter break?

Very happy, the week in which we played Celtic three times on the bounce totally changed our season for the worst, the run following these games was awful, although there were a number of tough games among those. Since we’ve returned from the break we seem to have rediscovered the intensity and fighting spirit that we showed in the first four months of the season.

For any Dundee fans that haven’t followed your transfers in the January window, can you talk us through the players that have been brought in?

It was another pretty busy transfer window, the massive question was going to be how we replaced Louis Moult –an incredibly big job given his contribution to Motherwell in the last few years. Initially Curtis Main arrived on a free from Portsmouth, many fans had a look at his Wikipedia page and instantly wrote him off as a player who wouldn’t provide the goals, but his goal against St Johnstone brought him to four goals in five games for the club, he’s shown many attributes that have had the majority of us believing that he can go someway to filling the void left by Louis.

Ciftci’s contribution has been mainly positive too, his touch is fantastic and he’s a very strong link-up player. I was really pleased to see him get off the mark against Thistle last week and hope he can adhere himself to Dundee fans even more this weekend by sticking a few in the net. We were also able to secure the signing of Peter Hartley on a permanent deal (you maybe saw the video?) and Stephen Hendrie has arrived on loan from Southend, I think it was a positive window for the club.

In our last tie, I felt Dundee done enough for the win but it would end all square. What were your thoughts on our previous encounter?

I would agree with you, I think we left that game very satisfied with a point, which is in part credit to Dundee for how they played and also a little down to how poor our display was.

I was listening to your podcast today and quite enjoyed the discussion surrounding Colt teams entering Division 2. Could you give you thoughts to our readers about this?

Prior to recording the podcast I was dead against the idea and I still am, but for different reasons now. These plans appear to have been rushed through to ensure Celtic and Rangers get their wishes. It is wrong on so many levels – I’d encourage anyone with an interest in the situation to check out our recent podcast (head about 30 minutes in if you’d prefer to avoid the MFC chat) and listen to the debate on the issue.

You’ve come into this Cup tie on the back of a fine win over struggling St Johnstone whilst we got absolutely spanked at the weekend by bottom side Ross County. Will any of this matter with it being the cup or can you see a tightly thought contest? Also what's your prediction for this tie?

I’ve not really considered Dundee’s result last week and don’t really think it’ll have any bearing on Saturday. Both encounters this season have been tight affairs and I don’t see this one being any different. The St Johnstone game showed when we get the ball down and try play football we can be very effective, I wouldn’t be surprised if we meet again in a replay at Fir Park, but hope we can sneak it – I’ll go for Dundee 1-2 Motherwell (Ciftci & Main)