The Accies dropped into the bottom half of the table following their 1-0 defeat against Dundee United as the massive slump that followed Alex Neil's departure continues. Martin Canning took charge and he has yet to win a game after 13 attempts.
Motherwell fans at NDP
Their good form earlier in the season included three wins over Motherwell, a League Cup win after penalties and two thumping league triumphs with a 9-0 aggregate. But the tide turned with our January influx and at the end of March we came good and scored five at Fir Park to restore some pride. The transfer window left them without Andreu and Antoine-Curier and without any replacements they have struggled.
Carswell's red card at Firhill means he is unavailable but it may be that Johnson and Grant have made good use of the free weekend to ease Baraclough's selection problems. Hammell played again for a full 90 minutes in an U20 match on Tuesday and he'll be hoping to come into the manager's plans but the prospect of a first team return on the artificial surface .
McDonald and Pearson could be the key to this game. If the pair are on song it could be a happy night for the travelling fans. They have shown in the few weeks since their return that the whole team gets a lift when they have a good game. It’s likely that Sutton will return to the bench as the three striker experiment failed at Firhill in the last fixture. He has ably demonstrated that his scoring rate has not been hindered when his game time is restricted to the last twenty minutes.
This is a game that can properly be described as a ‘must win’. The season is fast running out and there is no room for anything but our best. Let’s be optimistic and go for a 2-0 win.