Christie flourishing encouraged Liam to make his move to the Well
Liam Polworth is a player made in the Highlands but reborn in Lanarkshire.
The midfielder has been in sparkling form for Motherwell this season and has been tipped for a full Scotland call-up.
He admits he’d fallen into a rut after eight years in the Inverness Caley Thistle first team.
Other players made their name at the Caledonian Stadium before moving on to bigger things.
Celtic’s Ryan Christie – a man Polworth will come up against at Parkhead today – is the best example of a local lad made good.
Polworth wondered if he’d ever get the chance to test himself at a different club.
The 25-year-old said: “I was ready to go a few times, but the door kept shutting in my face.
“People kept saying it was for this or that reason. Towards the end you think: ‘Is this ever going to happen?’.
“When I was coming out of contract, I knew I was leaving. But where, I was unsure.
“I just knew it was something I needed to do.
“I thought about it for a while before it actually happened.
“I was more ready for it than nervous. And it is something that has worked out well for me.
“Once Ryan went, people up there realised you could go elsewhere.
“He went on to do really big things. “Before he left, he was pretty much dragging the team himself at such a young age. He deserved his move at that time.”
Polworth has responded to the new challenge of life at Fir Park.
The midfield man admitted: “When you are somewhere for a while, you get into bad habits.
“I knew when I joined Motherwell that I needed to work a lot harder just to get in the team.
“Up at Inverness, I knew I would play almost every week. I had got into a rut.
“When I came to Fir Park, the manager made it clear everyone would have to work hard for their spot.
“He demands a lot of hard work, but he makes sure we get on the ball.
“It is something he encourages. He doesn’t mind if you lose the ball as long as you take it.
“That is something, as a midfielder, you are delighted to hear.”
Polworth has nine assists to his credit this season, but is happy to share the acclaim with his team-mates.
The Steelmen have a side packed with pace this term.
He said: “It’s a massive help to have someone either side of you as quick as the players we’ve got.
“It doesn’t have to be a perfect pass when they are that fast. It makes things happen.
“Obviously I’d love to score more goals than I do. But if someone else is scoring – and we are winning – then I’m happy with that.
“Playing alongside Allan Campbell in midfield is enjoyable. You just wind him up and off he goes.
“It’s big help to me when I see him running about . . . kicking people!
“I would like to think that he enjoys the way we play.”
The speculation linking Polworth with a call-up to the Scotland squad is something he brushes off.
He would love to represent his country again, having made a brief substitute appearance for the Under-21 team in 2016.
However, he’s realistic enough to accept that midfield is the one area where there’s no shortage of quality players for Steve Clarke to select.
More immediately, he hopes the narrow 2-1 defeat against Rangers at Ibrox last month can be bettered when Motherwell travel to Celtic Park this afternoon.
He said: “We obviously went in there with a different sort of plan than we would have for a normal league game.
“We had a different formation and a different way we were going to play.
“I thought at times we were playing well in the game and, maybe at big moments, things went against us, which happens.
“It is something we need to take forward to this game.”