The speckles of grey hair atop Keith Lasley's head hint of someone who has been around the block a few times.

The speckles of grey hair atop Keith Lasley's head hint of someone who has been around the block a few times.

Four hundred times, to be exact.

Almost 14 years to the day after making his debut in claret and amber, Keith Lasley notched up his fourth century of games for Motherwell in what has been a service littered with highlights.

The 35-year-old has reached the Scottish Cup final and the League Cup semi-final during his time at the club, while also leading them as captain into Europe on several different tours, most notably two years ago as the Steelmen advanced into the Champions League qualifiers for the first time in its history to face Panathinaikos.

Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Celtic was the fixture that tipped him over the 400 mark, and speaking to SportTimes about the milestone, Lasley explained how he was humbled by the reception he received from the Motherwell support 14 years on after they first applauded his name.

"Someone made me aware of it a week or so ago and I knew my 400th game would be against Celtic," said the Well captain, who made his debut for Well in a 2-0 defeat at Ibrox on this very day back in 2000.

"From my own point of view it's a proud moment. It was great to get a wee ovation from the boys in the corner of the East Stand who have supported the club greatly over the last few years.

"It's fair to say it's been a bit of a rollercoaster over my time here. Looking back you have the highs of cup finals and the European trips, it's certainly been a privilege to have been a part of it.

"My first game was against Rangers at Ibrox. So that's kind of topped off by going full circle against the other half of the old firm for my 400th. Unfortunately I didn't win that game either!

"In all seriousness, though, it has been great. If someone told me when I joined the club that I'd have played 400 times I would have struggled to believe them.

"Hopefully there is still many more to come."

While Lasley's achievements at Fir Park are plentiful, especially in recent years given Motherwell's consistent high finishes, turning their season around now would rank high among them.

After the defeat to Celtic on Saturday, Well remain two points off bottom clubs St Mirren and Ross County, with the latter coming to town on Saturday before the Lanarkshire side travel to the former the following week.

Two wins from those fixtures would go a long way to addressing a worrying slide which has seen Motherwell slip perilously close to a relegation play-off place.

And while County can't buy a win and turmoil seems to surround St Mirren after Tommy Craig's departure as boss yesterday, Lasley stresses the Steelmen can't look at the struggles of others while they don't have their own problems to seek.

"There's still a long way to go in the season but every game is big for us at the moment. We're all fighting," said the Well captain.

"We're just trying to get ourselves up the table. We are playing a lot of the teams in and around us in the league so if you can put a couple of wins together you can start to climb out of it.

"It's just about getting back into training and making sure we achieve that."

He added: "We can't afford to keep too much of an eye on elsewhere, though. If we don't win our games we'll stay where we are regardless.

"A few wins can give you a bit of daylight from teams around you but our focus has to be on ourselves. With the way things are going just now that's what we need to do to."

ends