THE GLADIATORS GO TO GOVAN
Baraclough’s rallying cry as he likens Ibrox to a colosseum
EMERGING from a fevered colosseum with survival hopes still intact must be Motherwell’s ai m. To manager Ian Baraclough, tonight’s visit to a sold-out Ibrox will be footballing combat in its most powerful form.
‘It’s a historic stadium and a great one to play in,’ the Englishman enthused. ‘I never did so myself, but you can imagine some ding-dong battles going ahead there.
‘I thought the atmosphere was great for the Hibs game (in the previous play-off round). It’s one where you have got to go in there as a gladiator and really relish it.’
Baraclough senses his squad are itching to cross swords. Between this evening and Sunday’s second leg at Fir Park, they have arrived at the last stand in their fight to preserve their Premiership status.
‘I know people have been saying that it is 1997 since the club last went to Ibrox and won — but records are there to be broken,’ he insisted.
‘ History is t here to create f or yourself. Look at Preston in the English play- offs. Nine times they failed until this year. But they went and put i t to bed by winning convincingly. We want to create our own little bit of history.
‘It’s the most important game in my career so far. It’s a great challenge. I know the magnitude of it for this football club and everybody connected with it.’
For a while, it looked as though the additions Baraclough made early in 2015, chiefly Scott McDonald, might just haul Motherwell away from this dramatic denouement.
But the bounce didn’t last. They closed the regular season with just one victory from their final six matches, finishing five points adrift of 10th-placed Kilmarnock.
Relegation has long loomed as a possibility but the f ear that accompanies it has been eased by the club’s majority shareholder Les Hutchinson.
Earlier this month, the Barbadosbased businessman assured players and staff there would be no drastic cuts should the play-offs send the club into the Championship.
‘Nobody wants to go down to a lower league,’ stressed Baraclough. ‘We’ve had conversations with the owner and he has come out and gone public with it.
‘The club is on a sound footing. But we don’t want to be putting our plans f orward f r om t he Championship. We want to be doing it from the Premiership.
‘Les is a very measured person. He is a successful businessman. When he came in, he could see what this club means to everybody.
‘It was a message he wanted to get across and he did it very well. Yes, we are fighting to stay in the division but when he said jobs won’t be lost, and that we’ve got to build and not cut, that was a really powerful message.
‘It does put people at ease. But for myself, the players and everyone connected with the playing side, we’re fighting for everybody. We’re the ones who have to go and do it.
‘We have good players who have played at the highest level. And we’ve got players who will go and play at the highest level. We’ve got game-winners and players who can go to the biggest stages and turn it on.
‘ We’ll have a belief and a confidence that we can do well in that first leg and make sure we come back to Fir Park with some sort of scoreline to build on.’
Doing so will, of course, require the frustrating of some very familiar faces. The prospect of Stuart McCall relegating the club for whom he did so much has been the central sub-plot of the play-offs.
McCall’s resignation from Motherwell in November opened the way for Baraclough’s appointment the following month.
‘I spoke to him before I took the j ob,’ said the ex- Sligo Rovers manager. ‘ Since that first phone call, when I asked him about the club, I’ve met him a few times at games. I enjoy his company. He is a fantastic manager. What he did for this club will never be forgotten.
‘I hope he comes back on Sunday and gets a show of appreciation from our f ans … and then, hopefully, he is on the losing team.
‘I actually played against Stuart when he played for Everton. How did I find him as a playing opponent? Tough. He didn’t give an i nch. Every challenge meant everything, as it has got to.
‘That’s the type of player you want in your ranks. He was a wholehearted player, as he is as a coach and a manager.’
McCall’s assistant, Kenny Black, remained at Fir Park f or the transition period until Baraclough recruited Steve Robinson as his No 2.
‘When I first took over, Kenny understood that a new manager coming in would want to bring in his own ideas and fresh voices,’ said Baraclough.
‘That’s what it was after seven or eight weeks. When the owner came in and finalised the deal to take over the club, I just felt it needed freshened up. I t was very amicable.’
McCall and Black’s bid f or promotion — and possibly a longer stay in charge at Ibrox — has unquestionably been aided by the form of Haris Vuckic.
As Sportsmail reported yesterday, Baraclough made an approach to try to sign the Slovenian on loan from Newcastle in January — only to be thwarted when the Tyneside club instead sent him to Govan.
‘Haris is a player I was interested in and we had conversations to try to get him up here,’ confirmed Baraclough.
‘But there was nothing we could do about it in the end. And when Newcastle said they were going elsewhere, I then thought there was a good chance he was going to Rangers.
‘He is a threat for them. He has come in and scored goals. He is one of a good many we will need to keep our eye on.’
We have men who can go to the biggest stages and win