Newly installed Motherwell manager Ian Baraclough is so excited about his first game as he named his team more than 24 hours ahead of kick-off. The line up has not been made public but he has told his players who he wants to start at St Mirren today. And he has every faith that the starting XI can secure the much-needed three points in the crunch meeting with their fellow top-flight strugglers. Baraclough said: "It's a clean slate and I've got to assess all the players. I've picked the team and the players know it. I like to work that way. Those who are not in the XI are hopefully not beating themselves up and thinking they'll never get a chance under the new manager. It's a squad game and you could be required at any time so you've got to be prepared. We have picked a side that's full of energy, that's technically very good. We've got strength in good areas. We are confident and we are looking forward to the game. There's an excitement in my stomach and I can't wait. Three points will cap off a really positive week."
Baraclough has already spoken about his long-term ambitions for the Lanarkshire side. But, right now, his focus is on lifting Motherwell away from the danger zone. They sit just three points in front of the rock-bottom Buddies heading into today's game. Baraclough said: "I can only judge it on what I have seen so far but I can't understand why we are on so few points after the amount of games played. The quicker we can start climbing the table and pull ourselves away from the bottom two the better. I'm confident we've got the players to take this club to where we want to be. The short term is the focus just now."
Baraclough is keen for previous assistant Kenny Black to stay at Fir Park as part of the new regime and confirmed the pair will be in the dugout in Paisley. Baraclough said: "I've spoken to Kenny and I'm quite happy with the situation at the moment. He's in the dugout on Saturday and has been working very well with the players this week. For me, it's business as usual. I'm quite comfortable with it. It's been a difficult period for Kenny. He had great success with Stuart McCall as his number two. To see a new man coming in must be quite a change but he's done everything I've asked - and more - and has been very supportive of me."
St Mirren defender Jason Naismith is determined to rediscover the early-season optimism that quickly evaporated in Paisley. Saints produced a promising opening-day performance against Motherwell at Fir Park but suffered a 4-1 loss to Celtic last weekend and go into their return game against the Lanarkshire side bottom of the Scottish Premiership. Caretaker manager Gary Teale and assistant David Longwell are trying to inject some positivity into the team ahead of their first home game in charge following Tommy Craig's departure and Naismith wants to get back to that brighter outlook he had in the summer.
The local boy said: "I was very optimistic after that game. I think we played them off the park that day and anybody who was there would have agreed. We could have won the game four or five-one. I remember meeting a St Mirren fan afterwards and he said it was the best we had played on an opening day since we won the First Division. So I was very optimistic going into the season but things haven't turned out the way we would have hoped. But this is a fresh start and we need to kick on."
Teale has stepped up from his player-coach role along with Naismith's former youth development coach and Naismith believes the team are ready to embrace the new approach. The defender said: "There is definitely a freshness. Tealy has been trying to implement new ideas along with Davie and Davie is a very good coach. His training has been geared towards the game all week and hopefully the ideas will pay off on Saturday. It's a massive game for us, everybody knows that but more so inside the club. Our manager and Davie have been telling us all week, stressing how important it is. We need to take on their new ideas and take that into the game."