A stress-free run is target for McManus
TO mos t who witnessed it, last season’s Play- Off Final between Motherwell and Rangers will forever be remembered as the day the battle for a place in the Premiership descended into an on-field brawl.
Yet to Stephen McManus, it will always be the f raught occasion when the Motherwell players successfully f ought for the jobs of those who do invaluable work behind the scenes at Fir Park.
A former Celtic captain and Scotland international, McManus has seen a lot in his successful career. But he admits to being left drained by the Play- Off experience, despite Motherwell crushing Rangers 6-1 on aggregate.
The 32-year-old defender and his team-mates are in action at Fir Park today for the first time competitively s i nce t hat controversial second leg in May, when Rangers defender Bilel Mohsni and Motherwell forward Lee Erwin infamously clashed at full-time.
And after winning 1- 0 at Inverness Caley Thistle last weekend, McManus is hoping f or a second consecutive victory of the new league season to help avoid a repeat of last season’s stressful brush with relegation.
‘ The Play- Offs were very tough,’ said McManus ahead of today’s visit of Dundee United.
‘When you are at a club like Motherwell, the first people who lose their jobs after relegation are those who don’t play on a Saturday.
‘It’s the people who work behind the scenes, who make this club what it is, a family-orientated club. As you get older, you appreciate how hard people like them work. It was horrible to go into matches kn o wi n g other people’ s livelihoods were at stake.
‘Hopefully, that won’t happen again, because nobody here wants to experience what we went through last season.’
Should Motherwell beat United today, it would be the first time since 2007 that the Fir Park club have kicked off a new season with two consecutive victories in the league. Then, under Mark McGhee, they went on to finish third behind Celtic and Rangers.
Motherwell have beaten United only twice i n eight attempts at Fir Park stretching back to April 2011.
And, in any case, McManus counsels against anyone getting ahead of themselves even if the Steelmen are victorious today.
‘Two matches doesn’t make a difference, I can assure you,’ he said. ‘ We won our first game last season, then results tailed off.
‘So we will take it a game at a time, because they are tough fixtures — United at home, Hearts away, Aberdeen at home.
‘It will be a hard game against United, who have done well here in recent years.
‘They lost key players in the past six months but you can’t knock the job Jackie McNamara, Simon Donnelly and Darren Jackson have done up there.
‘They lose players, get new ones in, develop them and then sell them on again. They do a great job on a tight budget.’
Motherwell are reeling from the loss of one of their own key players, this time to injury.
The i nfluential Stephen Pearson picked up a knee injury in a yellow-card challenge that left Inverness Caley defender Gary Warren with a broken ankle last weekend.
While Motherwell manager Ian Baraclough prays the setback is not serious, the fact he hopes to clinch the loan signing of a midfielder next week suggests the ex-Celtic and Scotland midfielder could be absent for a longer time.
‘Stephen had a scan on Friday afternoon and, hopefully, it’s not too serious,’ said the Fir Park boss. ‘The stability in the knee joint is good compared to what it was earlier in the week when it was very sore.
‘It was a hefty blow and we feel for Gary Warren as well, because you don’t like to see a player getting i njured l i ke that.
‘Even before last weekend, we were looking to add to the midfiel d area, but with Pearson’s i njury blow it is now imperative that we get someone in.’