MARK McGHEE insists Motherwell's grand plan is making strides forward despite fan upset after Wednesday night's collapse.

The Steelmen crashed to a 3-0 home defeat to Inverness causing the Fir Park club to slump to second bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.

Only one win in their last 10 games paints a worrying picture for the Well whose support voiced their discontent on full-time and on social media.

Motherwell boss McGhee appreciates the concerns of a fan base who just over two years ago watched their team escape relegation in a Premiership play-off.

However he has stressed that his team are continuing to drive forward under the remit set to him when he took over as boss last October.

McGhee said: “Fans have their own perspective but my brief here is very clear and hasn’t changed since we come in. It’s to keep us in the division and to produce young players.

“Last season we lost six goals at Hearts and seven at Celtic but we also won a lot of games and we’ve had some good performances this time out.

“That’s the nature of it but, by the start of next season, we’ll have three or four more young players who are as good as established members of our squad.

“We don’t have a benefactor. There’s no-one willing to put money in – we have to produce every penny that we spend ourselves and part of that has to be the turnover of players.

“That’s been done already. We’ve sold Marvin Johnson, whom I worked very hard with. I promoted him relentlessly and we eventually sold him for a good fee.

“We’ve also sold Ben Hall and, last Christmas, I managed to cull eight players from the wage bill. We’ve done all sorts of good work in that year to get us to this point and I believe we’ve made a lot of progress.

“So the fans will have their own view of a 3-0 home defeat by Inverness but I remain focused on what my job is and I don’t think we’re doing too badly.”

Next up is Ross County who complete Motherwell's home Highland double header this afternoon.

A victory for the hosts could take them up to eighth in the table and within touching distance of a top-six place, but equally a defeat could leave them tied bottom with Dundee, the side they will face next week in a crucial Dens Park fixture.

McGhee was upset at his team's second-half performance against Inverness but is not panicked by it, instead holding on to the belief that other performances so far this term have been encouraging.

He said: “You look at the results and they haven’t been good but we look behind that to the bigger picture and it’s not all been bad.

“What disappointed me most on Wednesday was that we didn’t come out fighting after we lost the opening goal. We just conceded and that was poor.

“So on Saturday we want to go back to being the team which ran Celtic so close for 87 minutes at Parkhead.

“Only a couple of weeks ago we played Hamilton and, like Arsene Wenger, I said that our first-half display was almost the perfect performance.

“We know we’ve got it in us so it’s up to me and Faddy to bring that out and allow them to get back to their best.”