Mark McGhee surprised at Motherwell's league standing

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee admits he is surprised his side have the chance to go second in the Premiership despite not hitting top form.

The Lanarkshire club can move four points behind leaders Celtic if they beat Hearts at Fir Park on Friday night.

Motherwell are unbeaten in four matches and shone in the opening half of a derby win over Hamilton but have only won twice in the league.

"I never really considered we were on any sort of run but we can go second, which is the ridiculous thing about it, that we feel as if we are about to get started," McGhee said.

"We played really well in that first 35 minutes against Hamilton. I heard (Arsenal manager) Arsene Wenger saying his team's first-half performance (against Chelsea) was the perfect performance, well I think our first half-hour was our perfect performance. But we didn't sustain it and then we went and drew.

"We are still fishing to find the right formula but we could be second on Friday night for a few hours, which would be lovely."

Hearts can also move second and McGhee is wary of the threat posed by Tony Watt, who he has worked with in the Scotland set-up.

"They are arguably one of the top three clubs," McGhee said. "They established themselves last season, I think they are terrific. They are physical but they can play as well.

"I would have jumped at the chance to take Tony here. I'm a great fan of his. I spoke to Craig (Levein) one day at a game about how they are handling him and I think they are doing it the right way and getting good things out of him.

"He holds it up, he'll turn people, he will play people in, he's got a trick, he's quick, strong. He's got the makings of a really good player if he keeps doing what he's doing now."