ST JOHNSTONE V WELL

Curtis insists he’s still the main man

MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson says that he will be looking to move some players out of the exit door at Fir Park in order to freshen up his squad in January.

The club revealed during the week that midfielder Andy Rose will be joining MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps in the winter transfer window, but as plans for that move were already afoot, it won’t free up any new funds for Robinson to spend.

Instead, he will have to move people on before he can set about strengthening his side, with his focus particularly on the wide areas.

“Andy has been excellent for me, he’s a super boy,” said Robinson. “We only really budgeted to have Andy until Christmas anyway, so it doesn’t free up any funds unfortunately to go and get anyone else in.

“The only way I’ll be able to bring more people in is by moving people out. We signed our players, some have worked, and some haven’t, and it’s up to me to be clever with our dealings in the transfer window and see what we can do.

“There are people we’ve got our eye on that we feel can add a little bit of pace and energy up top and in wide areas.

“I’m well aware we’re short of wide players. We’ve got Jake Hastie coming back from loan that has done very well at Alloa and they’ve done well for him, so that’s like signing a new player.

“If the possibility comes to get a couple of players out and a couple of players in to freshen the squad up, then we’ll take the opportunity to do that.”

Meanwhile, Robinson is expecting a physical battle against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park today, as he goes up against a manager in Tommy Wright that he has huge respect for.

“Tommy’s policy is to make sure they are solid and hard to beat, and the clean sheets they’ve had in six of their last seven games shows you how disciplined they are,” he said.

Meanwhile, St Johnstone Wright insists putting points on the board means more to him than writing his name into another chapter in the club’s history books.

The Perth outfit can equal their club record unbeaten run of nine games in the top flight if they avoid defeat to Motherwell at McDiarmid Park on Saturday. He told the club’s official website: “It hasn’t been in our thoughts at all. I don’t want to belittle records but it doesn’t really mean anything. What matters is where we finish up.

“Of course we want to keep the run going but the unbeaten record isn’t something that’s been mentioned.

“Our focus is on a tricky Motherwell side and ensuring we maintain our levels.”