Craig Clay says that he and the rest of the Motherwell squad have to alleviate the goalscoring burden from the shoulders of star strikers Louis Moult and Scott McDonald.

The midfielder has only netted once in 24 appearances for the Steelmen this season, and even the highest-scoring player from the middle of the park, Chris Cadden, has just three to his name.

Clay wants those rather stark statistics to change, and he says the Motherwell players are working hard on sharing the goals throughout the team.

“We know that Louis and Scott are class finishers and they’re big players for us but we need to take some off the weight off their shoulders,” Clay said.

“Myself and the other lads need to start chipping in as well because, if we do, that can only help us all.

“My best total for a season is three – with Grimsby last season – so, if I can keep my place in the team, I can maybe equal or better that because I’ve only scored once so far.

“That’s one thing I definitely need to improve on – I need to add goals to my game.”

Although Clay hasn’t been a regular scorer, his performances on the whole have made him a mainstay of the Fir Park side for most of the season.

He had dropped out of the starting line-up for a spell and was a substitute in the now infamous defeat at Aberdeen, but came back in to turn in a creditable display along with his teammates last Saturday at Celtic Park.

“I feel as though, on a personal level, I had a good game at Parkhead,” he said. “I hadn’t been in the team for a few games so I felt I had a point to prove.

“Obviously, I was determined to impress the gaffer and that added an extra edge to my game because, after being left out, I was determined to keep my place.

“It wasn’t just me, though, I felt we went there as a team and did ourselves proud. Everyone knows how disappointed we were with that 7-2 defeat by Aberdeen but I think we’ve put that behind us now.

“All we could do after that was show a positive reaction and I think our display against the best team in the country was exactly that.”

The challenge at home to Dundee today might not be as stern as the visit to the champions on paper, but Clay knows it will be a difficult afternoon with the visitors on a high from their weekend win over Rangers.

But the significance of the game in relation to whether Motherwell’s top-six ambitions make way for a battle just to stay in the division is not lost on him.

“We have a good run coming up now, although we can’t afford to do anything other than take it on a game-by-game basis,” he said.

“If you’re near the bottom then the games against the teams around you naturally take on a greater significance so Dundee is massively important for us.

“When I was at Chesterfield we won promotion to League One and then we were relegated straight away.

“I was just a bit-part player, though. I was 19 at the time and only made a few appearances that season.

“Even so, it wasn’t nice to be in the dressing room when that happened but our situation now is completely different from that because we’re not even contemplating going down.

“We’re all positive – we know we can go on that run and we’re confident we won’t be roped into the trouble at the bottom.

“This is different to anything I’ve experienced before, especially with the split coming up. But we know that we’re capable of putting together the kind of run which will give us a top-six finish.

“It’s been our aim, partly because it means you then definitely can’t be relegated or sucked into the play-offs.”