Motherwell manager Mark McGhee may have had some great times at Celtic Park as a player, but as a manager it has been the scene of more than a few days he would like to forget.

As Aberdeen boss, he infamously went down by nine goals without reply in Glasgow’s East End, and already as Motherwell manager he has suffered a seven-nil and a five-nil defeat.

He did however manage to guide the Steelmen to a shock win at the venue last year too, and he is hoping his men can produce a similarly disciplined, focused performance today as they look to upset Brendan Rodgers’ high-flying Hoops.

And he joked that even going back to Lanarkshire with a 3-0 defeat would be something of an improvement.

“We’ve had a seven-nothing and a five-nothing there, so if that doesn’t focus us then nothing will,” McGhee said.

“It’s a game we can’t go into now any other way than absolutely focused. We don’t want to get beat.

“We’re hoping it might go from seven to five to three, and in three games time we’ll beat them one-nothing! That would be progress.

“But no, they are a fabulous team at the moment and we know how difficult a task it’s going to be, so we’ve got to prepare for that and that’s got me fully focused.

“I see a difference in their energy and their movement, their movement is back to what it was under Gordon. They have energy and there’s a real difficulty in knowing who is going where.

“They have so many strengths they can overwhelm you, but we’ve just got to prepare the best we can and hope we can contain them.

“Maybe if we can contain them well enough then someone can nick something for us at the other end.”

McGhee passed the first anniversary of his second spell in charge of Motherwell during the week, and he admits that it was great to get back to club business after a bruising week away with Scotland.

He says that just being at Fir Park revitalises him, particularly when he surveys the young talent currently within the Motherwell ranks, with their under-20 side riding high near the top of the Development League table.

“It’s been a brilliant year, I’ve enjoyed it and I’m so glad I got to come back,” he said.

“What excites me is that yesterday I came back from Scotland duty and sat down with the sports scientists, Crags and Faddy and we talked about our young players who won 4-0 at the beginning of the week.

“We have a crop of young players who, and I was reminded of the importance of it in the Slovakia game the other night, are physically strong.

“We’ve got a group here where some of them are skin and bone and one or two look like a set of bagpipes, but they’ve got a frame that will allow us to really build them up.

“I’m putting together a programme for these boys looking ahead to the start of next season, where we can maybe put 10 kilos on some of these boys and that really excites me.

“The year I’ve had has been great, but more exciting for me being here is the prospect of these good young players. They are the right types that we need in terms of developing the team going forward.

“I’m thoroughly looking forward to the next year.”