Motherwell manager Graham Alexander is relishing the chance to prove how much his side have developed recently when they take on Celtic at Parkhead.
Alexander collected his second Glen’s Manager of the Month award in three months this week after leading his side to wins over Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee United in November.
The positive months sandwiched a difficult October when Well took just one point from five cinch Premiership matches, a run which included a comfortable 2-0 win for Celtic at Fir Park and ended with a 6-1 thrashing by Rangers.
Motherwell have since consolidated their place in the top six, also with the help of last weekend’s draw with Hibernian, and aim to do better against Ange Postecoglou’s side.
Alexander said: “We are looking forward to it – it’s a chance to see how much we have improved, certainly in the last month, because it’s one of the sternest tests you are going to face.”
Alexander was most pleased with the award because of “the way the team performed after a very negative result”.
“The players deserve immense credit for coming back from that and showing what a good team we are, what a good squad we are, because we haven’t just used the same 11 players, we have had to use the full squad,” he added.
“That’s what has pleased me most, that we have looked at things, we have tried to improve, we have improved.
“The players have bought into what we had to do to make those improvements. That for me is worth more than anything, because I know you are working with good personalities, good characters, good footballers.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, the players deserve immense credit because we were in a difficult period a month ago and we have had a good month since then.
“But we have got to maintain that consistency. That trait is what we are chasing and I think we’ve got the players to do that.”
Motherwell have selection issues though, with fitness problems in central defence and midfield.
“We are a little bit bare to be honest,” Alexander said. “We have a few injury issues from last week and previous weeks so we might have to change players and a little bit of what we have been doing recently because of the personnel.
“We will give those players every chance of being fit for Sunday but I can’t see it being the same team this week as it was last.”
