Motherwell looking to add O'Brien

Motherwell's defensive problems have only got worse ahead of their visit to Dundee United but manager Stuart McCall hopes to ease them by signing Derby centre-back Mark O'Brien later in the week.

O'Brien is set to join on loan after recovering from an ankle injury he suffered last month.

The 21-year-old has made 35 appearances for Derby but his progress has been hindered by two serious knee injuries.

His arrival will be warmly welcomed as Motherwell will still be without the injured Steven Hammell and Simon Ramsden at Tannadice on Wednesday night, while Fraser Kerr, Zaine Francis-Angol and Craig Reid played in Saturday's 1-0 win over St Mirren despite not having trained for two weeks.

To add to their problems, Adam Cummins has suffered a minor strain and is out of the squad.

McCall said: I think Mark would probably have been with us if he hadn't gone over on his ankle in pre-season.

He has just been coming back to fitness now, so he's one we are waiting for.

He started full training now so hopefully at the back end of the week, he will be a player we would like to get in on loan.''

McCall is also working on a deal for a new striker with a loan arrangement also likely.

If what we're working on comes off I'll be delighted,'' he said.We've got to give it a chance. If it doesn't, we will have to look elsewhere. Rather than taking somebody else, I'd rather give it a chance.''

McCall knows his side will have to improve on their showing against St Mirren when they travel to face a United side which won 3-0 at Aberdeen on Sunday.

McCall labelled Nadir Ciftci the best striker in the league last season'' while he feels Ryan Dow is more than adequate cover for the departed Ryan Gauld.

It's got the makings of a really tough game, even if we had been at full strength,'' McCall said.

But over the years we have been to places when we're backs to the wall and people don't give us much chance, and we have shown a lot of character. We are going to need that.

We need an improvement in performance, individually and collectively, to what we had on Saturday, and a good strong resilience in the team because most people will have them down as certainties after what they did at the weekend.''