Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has challenged his players to make it four wins in a row to storm up to second place.
Well would move up to second in the Ladbrokes Premiership with a win over Ross County at Fir Park on Saturday as Rangers do not face St Johnstone until the following day.
Wins over Hamilton, Hibernian and Hearts have seen Motherwell surge up the table but Robinson knows they will have to be at their best against County, who won at Fir Park in January in the William Hill Scottish Cup.
Robinson said: “If we win on Saturday we can go into second place, albeit for 24 hours.
“There’s a little incentive there with teams not playing until the Sunday. So we can go into second place but we can’t just turn up and expect that to happen. We have to really work hard and do the simple things well, which we’ve done in previous weeks.
“We’ve got players in the team that can win football matches and a solid backbone of a back four.
“Our expectations are growing but we have to make sure we don’t get too carried away. It’s a start but that’s all it is.
“It’s just the start of the season and we’ve started well but we can’t expect to turn up and just win football matches. We had to work very hard for our win at Hearts and it will be the same on Saturday.
“I’ve got a lot of admiration for the staff at Ross County, their co-managers and Roy MacGregor. They’ve done really well and gave us a lesson last season at Christmas time that if you don’t perform they’ve got a lot of players who can punish you and I think they’ve improved since then.
“We have to be at our very best to try to get three points.”
There were reports this week linking Robinson with the Hearts job, should the Tynecastle outfit opt to replace manager Craig Levein. But Robinson insists he ignores the speculation.
He said: “I don’t read it and I just solely concentrate on trying to win football matches for Motherwell. So that’s my sole focus.”
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Mark Gillespie is loving his time at the club as talks take place over a new contract.
Gillespie said: “I love playing here. It’s something I’ve left to my representative, so I can just get on with playing football.
“I’m not sure where it’s at at this moment. We had two big games against Hearts and Hibs and then we’ve got other big games around the corner.
“So as it develops we’ll sit down at the right time and talk about it. There’s nothing to update but as far as I’m concerned, since I’ve come to the club I’ve enjoyed my time here, really enjoying the football at this moment.
“I feel like I’m improving as a player and feel as though I’m coming towards big years for me as a goalkeeper. So we’ll see what happens.”
