Well boss admires United’s revival

Mixu Paatelainen has been praised for the mental strength he has shown to drag his team back from their crushing defeat to Motherwell last month.

The Steelmen’s 3-0 win at Tannadice ensured United were 13 points adrift at the bottom, but Paatelainen’s team have since beaten Hearts and Ross County before winning at Dingwall again in the William Hill Scottish Cup.

They can cut the gap on Kilmarnock to five points if they win at Fir Park tomorrow night and Motherwell boss Mark McGhee knows his men will face determined opponents.

McGhee, whose side have won three of their last four matches, said: “You have got to be impressed with the mental strength Mixu has shown to keep his head above water because that night they were down.

“I don’t mean relegated, but depressed about what had happened.

“So to recover from that, win the games and bounce back the way they have has been quite impressive.”

Meanwhile, Lanarkshire derby hero Louis Laing is set to miss the match.

Laing picked up a groin injury against Hamilton on Saturday which he aggravated when lashing home the only goal of the game.

The 23-year-old defender had just returned to the team in Motherwell’s win over United.

McGhee said: “Louis Laing is struggling.

“He has a groin injury that resulted in a swollen thigh and it looks as if it will at least keep him out this week and possibly a couple of weeks.

“It’s a blow to us but the biggest blow is for the boy, he has done brilliantly to recover psychologically to the point where he is able to get in the team and with each game he was getting better.

“And he brings a different dynamic, he is big and fast and he has got that great range of passing which was really good for us.”