MOTHERWELL striker Conor Sammon says that the Fir Park side can’t be too downbeat about being swept aside by Celtic during the week, as it will be their upcoming fixtures that are more likely to define their season.

The big forward was given a rare start at Celtic Park on Wednesday night – just his fifth of the league season – as Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson shuffled his pack ahead of a crucial run of matches prior to the winter break.

And Sammon believes that his rotation policy will be vindicated if the Steelmen come away from those games against St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Hamilton with a decent return of points.

“Our season won’t be defined by the Celtic games, but we are an ambitious group,” Sammon said.

“We want to test ourselves against the top teams and show what we can do. For large parts of the game [on Wednesday night], we did that. But it was a learning curve for us.

“Now we have three massive games in the next week. We will take the positives and look forward to Saturday.

“St Mirren on Saturday is huge for us. We are on a decent run of form just now and we want to keep that going.

“We have a good group, we are playing some good stuff and we want to keep that momentum.”

Sammon is hoping that he did enough on the night to survive the cull that his manager is certain to make from the line-up that took to the field at Celtic Park when he names his side for St Mirren’s visit to Fir Park on Saturday.

The 32-year-old is desperate to make a lasting impression on the Motherwell support during his loan spell from Hearts, and believes he can get on the scoresheet regularly if he is given a run of games to improve his sharpness in front of goal.

“It’s great when you get a run - you feel fresh, fit and sharp,” he said.

“It can be hard coming into the team because you can’t click your fingers and feel like you are right on it.

“But that’s the way the season has been for a few players, like myself. We’ve had to bide our time and wait for opportunities.

“I played against Celtic a few weeks ago and again on Wednesday, and it was good to get test myself.

“I am always ready to take my chance and hopefully I gave the manager something to think about for the games coming up.

“I feel like I have a lot to offer. Obviously, I want to score goals because you then give the manager no choice. That’s the frustrating part as I had a few chances against Celtic.

“But I will just look to take any opportunity I get.”

Meanwhile, Motherwell manager Robinson has been hit with a five-game touchline ban by the SFA following his criticism of the officials as his side went down by seven goals to one at Rangers in November.

Two of the five matches have been suspended to next season, but the ban for the remaining three fixtures comes into effect immediately, meaning that he will sit in the stand for the games against St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Hamilton.