It is always annoying when a decent run of form comes to an end as it seems to take so long to match it again.

Motherwell's John Sutton is determined to help start another unbeaten run for the Fir Park side after an injury-time goal by Hearts stopped them making it 10 league games without a loss. The club's nine in a row run ended last Wednesday when Ruben Palazuelos strike was deflected into the goal and consigned Sutton's side to a 2-1 defeat. The result left them 12 points behind third-placed Hearts. However, the unbeaten spell has given Mark McGhee's men hope of making European football for a second year running. Dundee United are the visitors to Fir Park on Saturday which gives the home side the chance to cut the gap on the fourth-placed visitors to four points. Sutton is determined to prove the mid-week defeat was a minor blip in Motherwell's recent transformation from SPL strugglers to top-six hopefuls.

He said: "We were very disappointed not to get something from the game at Hearts so we are raring to go after that and get back on track. Before that in the league, we were unbeaten in nine games. We want to set the record straight and strengthen our chances of getting into the top six and maybe push for fourth place. United are in fourth place, which guarantees you a place in Europe; so, if we can take three points from them, that will push us in the right direction. I think we would need Hearts to slip up a fair bit to get third so, realistically, fourth position is a possibility. If we can get on a good run like we did before the Hearts game, there's no reason why we can't do that."

Sutton has re-established himself in the first team, despite the arrival of Celtic striker Cillian Sheridan on loan, after going two months without a start in the league. Sutton scored five goals in his first six SPL games for Motherwell after joining from Wycombe in August. However, his goal in the 2-1 win over Inverness on February 28 was his first league goal for almost five months. He is confident he can now play his part alongside Sheridan and David Clarkson in pushing Motherwell back into the top six and further up the table. He said: "I got off to a decent start then we went on a bad run, and when we turned it around, I wasn't in the team. The team were playing so well, I just had to wait my turn and now I'm back in. The manager spoke to me and said I could improve in certain areas and during training I worked on that. It's good to have an ex-striker as your manager. It's hard on you sometimes but it has helped me improve. If we want to get up the table then winning games is very important. You need to score goals and you need to attack teams. If all three of us are on the pitch then your mentality is to score goals."
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