MARK McGHEE will use this weekend's Lanarkshire derby as a yardstick to measure how his Motherwell are shaping up this season.

Five games into their Ladbrokes Premiership campaign and the Fir Park outfit have one victory, two defeats and a pair of draws to their name as their opening day three-point haul away to Kilmarnock fades into the distance.

Despite the lack of a win since that opening weekend, manager McGhee said his team have been 'satisfactory' since as clubs jostle for position.

McGhee believes there is still more to come from his team, however. Now last seaoson's top goalscorer Louis Moult has returned from injury, he's hopeful Motherwell can kick on after last weekend's credible 1-1 draw away to Ross County and climb the table.

A local derby with Hamilton Academical is next up tomorrow at Fir Park, and the importance, both in a local sense and as a gauge for things to come, cannot be understated.

“I think our season started last week," said McGhee. "A point away from home against Ross County is a decent point at this stage of this season.

“We could have won it, we could have won the Dundee game, but equally we could have lost them.

“We didn’t draw a lot of games last year so hopefully that’s an improvement in the sense that they are not games that we drew but should have won, they are matches we could have lost.

“If we can step up from that rather than stepping back to a defeat that would be really positive and we can start to get encouraged.

"I think psychologically it’s important to win derbies, but equally it’s about measuring ourselves. I said at the start of the season when I was asked about my targets I said that we don’t know because it’s a new group really. So is everyone else.

“I’d say Hamilton, Ross County and Kilmarnock with us are all much of a muchness. We’re all finding out about each other and to see if we’re going to be better than the other. These are the games where you find that out."