Kilmarnock have had the upper hand in the two previous meetings this term with a 2-0 win in August on their artificial surface. Our inability to take advantage against their ten men in the second half at Fir Park in early March resulted in a 1-1 draw that had the Motherwell support leaving the ground muttering about two dropped points.
Our opponents had their seven game unbeaten run (2 wins & 5 draws) brought to an end last week when (much to our frustration) they lost to Ross County in Dingwall. That sequence has almost certainly secured Gary Locke’s job as manager and the expectation is that he’ll be confirmed in the post before kick-off.
Slater and Pascali will miss the game due to suspensions but they will have plenty to offer up front with Obadeyi, Magennis and Eremenko providing the main threat.
Both teams would view the international break as an opportunity to refresh their squads and to clear up bumps and bruises. Paul Lawson after a long, long spell of treatment now has U20 game time and he’ll soon be in the manager’s mind but there seems to be a welcome stability to our starting eleven now that the close season’s imports have settled in.
The players will have fresh memories of the excellent second half against Hamilton and the boost that followed from scoring four to take three points will add to the belief that we can take another three on Saturday.
A decent away support normally follows the team to Kilmarnock and fans should be aware that a £2 discount and free U12 tickets are available via the Fir Park ticket office (open until 7pm on Thursday and 5pm on Friday). With any luck we’ll be able to cheer the team on to a 2-1 win.
Remember our last trip to Kilmarnock?