Graham Alexander says Motherwell and Livingston are both on form, and expects a Boxing Day cracker on Sunday.
The sides clash head-on at Fir Park, with Motherwell having won three of their last six Premiership clashes, while Livi are unbeaten in their last three, with two wins and a draw.
Alexander's side won the previous clash 2-1 at the Tony Macaroni Arena back in August, and he reckons they're in for a tough test.
Motherwell go into the clash on the back of a convincing 2-0 win over St Johnstone, but their boss insists there are no easy games, but dismissed any talk of Motherwell being 'favourites' going into the game.
"Favourites with who, the bookies?" he asked. "I don't gamble, I've not been in a bookies for about 30 years, so that doesn't come into our equation at all.
"We look at the quality of the opposition, the quality of this league and the importance of three points every week, and that's what we look at, going into it.
"That's decided by other people, that doesn't affect us at all. We have to understand where our game comes from, what makes us a good team, each individual a good player, and make sure we recreate all the things we have to do to win a game.
"I think we're on form. There are things we can improve and do better, I feel, but we've taken some really good wins and added to our points tally - but if you ask Livingston they'll probably think they're in good form as well.
"I think both teams will go for the win, it will be a competitive game, as they all are.
"They're in good form, as are we. It's always a tough game in the Premiership, it's always a tough game against Livi.
"I spoke previously to the last game against St Johnstone that it was going to be as tough a game as it was against Celtic, and it was.
"People seemed to think that it wasn't, but we had to do a lot of good things all the way through the game to make sure we took the points.
"Sunday will be no different; we're well aware of their quality, I'm sure they're well aware of ours, and both teams will go for the win."
Alexander hopes having only 500 supporters inside Fir Park won't have a negative impact on his team, or the game, and says the backing they have received has been brilliant.
He said: "Hopefully the lack of supporters won't impact on the atmosphere of the game too much, because the supporters have been brilliant inside Fir Park this season, and when they've followed away.
"But certainly here there has been a brilliant atmosphere, and we have to try and recreate that with the players and the 500 lucky few.
"I know supporters and the atmosphere plays a part during games when things happen - both in a positive and negative sense.
"I think all players will have had an experience of it, from last year, but we've seen the difference when supporters are in and it's a big difference, and it's a positive difference, so hopefully it doesn't impact on us."
Defender Juhani Ojala has returned to training this week, but hasn't played for a month and Alexander and his staff will assess him ahead of the game. Otherwise, Motherwell's squad is "roughly the same" as it was last weekend.
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