Stevie Hammell says Motherwell have done their homework and are ready to stop Aberdeen at Pittodrie tomorrow.
Hammell and Dons boss Jim Goodwin go back quite a way both as players and coaches, and the Motherwell manager there’s been a good bit of recruitment done up at the Granite City club over the summer.
Goodwin has amassed an entire team with 12 new faces brought in.
But while Hammell sees tomorrow’s Premiership clash as one of the most difficult, he says they’re ready for the challenge.
He said: “It’s not one of the more pragmatic games for us, I think it will be more than that.
“They’ve recruited well, there are a lot of players we’ve had to do a little bit of research on, because they’ve recruited so many players.
“It’s probably one of the most difficult fixtures on the calendar for us, but we’ve prepared well this week.
“We understand it’s going to be a tough game, but by the time it comes we’ll be as ready as we can be.
“We know they’re a talented team, they’ve got good staff, they’ll be well organised and pose good attacking threats, so we need to make sure we’re aware of that.”
Motherwell go into the game on the back of a last-gasp 2-1 defeat at home to St Johnstone last weekend, but Hammell says they’ll take the positives out of that.
And he says the backing of his players was a major reason why he went for the manager’s job at Fir Park.
He said: “Saturday wasn’t perfect. We scored in injury-time, we were 30 seconds away from taking four points from two games, which I think most clubs would be happy with.
“We played right to the end, scored in injury-time ourselves, which shows that the players are willing to go there and do that, so we’re looking at the positives.
“The players have been fantastic. That was a big reason why I thought this is something that we can go and achieve, because of the reaction we’ve had from them.
“A few of them have come to us individually and been really positive about what we’re doing, which gives us great confidence.
“It’s not going to be easy, they know that. We’re going to challenge them, put them in scenarios where they’re going to feel like they’re progressing.
“But the buy-ink from them has been fantastic.
“We’re going to work hard, as always, and get in as much as we can.
“But the squad is thin, so we need to make sure we recover well from the game on Saturday.”
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