Is Motherwell more important than Moscow?

This coming weekend, Celtic travel along the road to play against Motherwell. Traditionally, as fans, we view this as a difficult place to go and it is.

We usually have a tough game and often it’s a close result but since their current manager took over, we have had a pretty good record against them.

Yes, we have a bigger match coming up on Tuesday night so for me, I will be happy with a draw from the match. Yes it’s a top of the table clash but do Motherwell really have the mindset combined with ability to go all the way and push for a top of the table league finish? To be completely honest, I don’t think so.

When Sevco were drawn to play against Motherwell in the cup, I immediately thought that Motherwell had no chance of a win in that match.Why is that some readers may be wondering?

The reason for my, with the benefit of hindsight, entirely justified guess was that their record is an absolute disgrace against Rangers. Given that most folk seem to think that Rangers and Sevco are the same club, I made the assumption that their record would be equally poor against Sevco too.

Andrew Stuart Murray McCall to give him his full name took over the Motherwell job on the 30th December 2010. Since then, his team have played against us 7 times. Of these games, Motherwell have one victory and six losses. In total, Celtic have scored 17 goals and conceded three.

Against Rangers and Sevco, his record is even worse. I am reliably informed they have had played against them eight times, drew once, lost seven and conceded 23 goals. When I say reliably informed, I mean that I copied the information from someone without actually researching it myself.

So combined, McCall’s Motherwell have played against Celtic, Rangers and Sevco a total of 15 times and only have one victory, one draw and 13 defeats to show for it.

If you also have a look at his record in Europe, it’s pretty grim too, out at the first stage this season and I have to say it was quite a convincing defeat. The point that I am getting at is that I am not so sure that McCall is able to play against teams whom are deemed to be the better or favorite team before the match.

I don’t know if it’s a question of tactics or if it’s a question of nerve or a question of the level of ability of this players. I don’t actually care what the reason is either but I sincerely hope that our players will be fighting to get a start against Spartak Moscow. If they are, they should be on the top of their game. If they are, then there’s nothing to say that we can’t beat them.

It’s this poor record that is making me dismiss Motherwell as serious title contenders.

Of course, these words might come back to haunt me but the point I am making really is that with such a poor record against the perceived bigger teams, I think we should go there with confidence.

Moving on to the European match, just three days after the Motherwell game, we have a bit of a trek across the continent to Russia. Thankfully, the weather shouldn’t be too cold yet over there so it’s not as if we have to spend a day or two to adjust to the climate. The average for October in Moscow is approximately 6 degrees.

The next thing to consider is fatigue for the players. At this stage of the season, we shouldn’t be tired and I am sure the squad will be travelling either first or business class meaning that they will be able to get a good rest on the flight.

With our record in Europe under Neil Lennon, we shouldn’t have to worry about this silly away day hoodoo that some people like to remind us about.

So far, so good really. The only thing that we have to worry about now is the opposition.  Of course that’s a fairly big factor. I have to admit that I don’t know a great deal about the Russian team, outwith Aiden McGeady. Will he be fired up to show his old club and fans what we are missing? I’d think so and given that he’s a professional sportsman, I can’t fault him for that.

Apart from Aiden, we don’t know a great deal about the opposition, although, I’m sure that the scouts and coaching staff at Celtic will. In general, the Russian league is one of the more financially better off leagues of the world so I’d expect a lot of expensive and competent players to be facing us.

Going back to the Motherwell game, if we leave there with a point and we do the same versus Moscow, I think we can say it’s been a productive two games.

CLICK HERE for Lennon: As good a debut as I’ve seen

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