IAN BARACLOUGH, the Motherwell manager, says that his players have to go into the new season believing that they can win the title, even if realistically it is a long-shot.

Baraclough came under fire last season when he arrived at a club battling relegation and immediately stated the same bold aim, but he insists that he is simply trying to instil a winner’s mentality in his players rather than making any outlandish statements about ‘Well challenging for the Premiership crown.

Speaking as the club announced a deal with Castle Water to sponsor the back of their shirts this season, he said: “You have to have that mentality – and you guys can twist that however you want - and I’m sure you will!

“You have to think that you can go on and win every game.

“Will it happen? We’ll wait and see. But if you go in with the mentality of aiming for fourth, fifth or sixth, then that’s where you will end up.

“A player has to believe he will win every game of football and that’s what we want to happen here.”

Motherwell’s car crash season last term was saved by the crushing wins in the relegation play-offs, and Baraclough is looking to harness the euphoria of those victories to springboard his side to a successful campaign this time out.

"We want to use the momentum from the play-off games against Rangers,” he said.

"The fans went away happy in the end but not with the way the season panned out.

"You can ride a certain wave into this season and the way the campaign finished was as good as anything we could have hoped for on the back of two good performances.

“We need to improve on last year – the club as a whole. We were all disappointed in how it went.

“Everyone wants to be in the shake-up at the end of the season.

"We have kept most of the squad together and the players have come back with a spring in their step.

"They have had a good few weeks off and can't wait to get back in, and we will be looking to use the play-offs as a springboard and platform to get a good start to the season.

"We have had a good pre-season and we are pleased with how it has gone.

"We have a tough opening six games but we have to play everybody anyway and we are in a good frame of mind.

"We want to get up and running and it is slightly different because we have not got European football this season to contend with and the injuries that Stuart McCall had to put up with this time last season.”

Despite being satisfied in the main with his summer rebuilding, Baraclough revealed that he is still hoping to do some business after missing out on Celtic midfielder Jackson Irvine, who rejoined Ross County earlier this week.

"He was a player we were interested in,” he admitted, “but we were not close enough in our attempts to sign him.

"We are looking to bolster the midfield and if the right one come along then we will go for it, but if not, then I am content with what I have got [in there].

“We are a couple of players short – definitely a goalkeeper.

“We’ve not jumped in on certain ones and we’ve been left disappointed on others.

“That’s the way it is – everyone’s after good players.”