IT’S Fergie time at Motherwell, and Mark McGhee couldn’t be happier.

No, we’re not talking about the McGhee’s old Aberdeen manager, but young 20-year-old Fir Park defender David Ferguson, the youngster who seized his moment of opportunity in claret and amber on Saturday.

The Well Academy graduate was handed only his second appearance of the season in the 2-0 win over Partick Thistle where he lined up as part of a back three alongside Stephen McManus and Ben Heneghan.

This altered formation allowed McGhee to give Ferguson the chance his talent and hard work has deserved over the past few months, taking his place next to young left-back Jack McMillan and now first-team star Chris Cadden as the new kids on the Fir Park Street block.

“The pair of them were excellent against Thistle,” said McGhee talking about McMillan and Ferguson.

“Fergie has been unlucky. Mick and Ben have become that steady partnership, they’ve stayed fit and in the team. He’s not had his opportunity.

“Yet every time he turns out in the U20s he does well, whether it’s me watching him here or Stephen Craigan reporting back.

“We were pleased to be able to give him that opportunity to play as well as he did. The rest of the boys in the dressing room were happy for him. There was a lot of back slapping going on.”

Ferguson’s progression is yet another sign that the Motherwell conveyor belt of talent is now back in full swing.

With no millionaire benefactor left to safeguard the club under fan ownership, nurturing future stars is now the way forward for the Lanarkshire club.

Already Northern Irish defender Ben Hall was sold on with a lucrative sell-on, and the likes of Ferguson, McMillan and Cadden are just a few examples of the gems within the Fir Park set-up.

“We are bringing these boys on and to do that you’ve got to play them,” said McGhee.

“Fergie hasn’t played because of Mick and Ben, otherwise he would have been in already. We did the same with Ben Hall last year and we’ve done it with Jack and Fergie.

“They are holding down places and we need that to be the case. We need these young players stepping up, doing well and being good enough. We don’t have a big budget to go out at new year to sign two or three players.

“If they emerge out of the U20s then happy days.”

McGhee was thrilled with the win – and the clean sheet – earned in Saturday following a tough run of fixtures and results.

Next up is a daunting trip to Tynecastle that offers an opportunity to close the gap on Hearts to just two points. Crucially for McGhee, though, his players now go there with a win behind them knowing they are not just capable of taking points off the Jambos, but also Celtic who come to Fir Park the following weekend.

“The Hearts game we look forward to that. We’re only five points behind them,” he said.

“I think it’s important that it allows us to believe we can beat Celtic. Not so much the result or the nature of the performance, but if we lost to Thistle it would have been difficult for me to come up with a rationale to say to the players ‘Right we lost to Thistle but we can beat Celtic’.

“Instead, I can say with sincerity that we can build. Home games are important and we can believe that we can get something against Celtic.

“With this group of players we’re going to have some really good days and some difficult days and we’re going to have to just ride with that.”