More Of The Same Please
By Ed_ScottishFitba
Updated Friday, 27th February 2009
Terry Butcher wants to build on what has been achieved in the last four weeks and disappoint some of his former players who continue to ply their trade with the Steelmen.
Terry Butcher is looking forward to giving his old club Motherwell something to think about oj the long road home on Saturday. Butcher was in charge of Motherwell between 2002 and 2006 and enjoyed an impressive record at the Caledonian Stadium during his reign at Fir Park. He still has a soft spot for his former club, who he led to the 2005 CIS Cup final, but this time he will be focusing exclusively on a win which could lift Inverness off the foot of the table. He said: "I used to enjoy coming up here with Motherwell; we'd get an overnight stay and the boys would all be together and we got some good results here. But it's all about Caley Thistle, not Motherwell; they'll provide a difficult obstacle and it's going to be a hard match for us. They're on a good run and are unbeaten in their last nine matches."
Butcher knows he can expect no favours from Motherwell counterpart Mark McGhee this weekend. He said: "It'll be nice if they could just give us the three points but that's not the case and I'm sure Mark will be desperate to see their run continue to maintain their climb up the league." There will be a lot of familiar faces heading off the bus when the coach arrives at the Caledonian Stadium as most of the Motherwell squad played under Butcher and his assistant Maurice Malpas, who followed him into the top job with the Lanarkshire side and is again with him at Inverness. So although he has had them watched recently, the Inverness managerial team will also rely on inside knowledge when plotting their visitors' downfall.
He said: "We had them covered over the last few games and, to be honest, we know most of the players anyway. They're definitely a top-six side - there's no doubt about that - even if they've lost Chris Porter, whose goals were important for them. They've got Cillian Sheridan now from Celtic and David Clarkson, who I admire very much. He's a hard-working lad and honest lad who knows where the goal is. Myself and Maurice know the characters very well and believe they will go on to cement another top-six place, but hopefully that's after our match on Saturday."
Butcher has enjoyed an unbeaten start since replacing Craig Brewster just over a month ago. They could climb off the bottom for the first time this year on Saturday, given Falkirk are just a point better off, but their manager insists it will mean nothing if they still end up being relegated. Butcher said: "The players are a professional bunch and not the kind to get carried away with good press; they're very level-headed and know what they have to do. We've made some small steps along the pathway we want to go down, which could lead us to survival. We haven't achieved anything yet, we've managed to claw the difference back to a single point and it was important to bridge the gap straight away. The players are still extremely focused, although we've not climbed the table. When they look at it, they can see how close we are behind Falkirk and there's a realisation that we're in that position but we don't want to be there come the end of May. We want to get off the bottom of the league, which will give everyone a massive lift and boost in confidence. The standard has risen for sure and we have to make sure that's maintained on Saturday. If we can possibly play better than last week then we've got a great chance of getting another result" | Editor
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