Lasley eyeing final push for safety

Skipper Keith Lasley has been in cup finals and appeared in Europe for Motherwell but would feel real pride at avoiding the drop this season.

Eight games without a win at the start of the year had the Steelmen in bottom place in the Scottish Premiership, but only one loss in their last six has given cause for optimism even though they are only one place higher in the relegation play-off spot.

The 5-0 thrashing of basement side St Mirren at Fir Park in midweek was Motherwell's third successive victory and a win at ninth-placed Partick Thistle on Saturday will take them within a point of the Jags.

Asked where the retention of top-flight status would rank among his other achievements, Lasley, in his second spell at the Lanarkshire club, said:

"Obviously you have had so much success at this club in terms of European qualification, cup finals and semi-finals and things like that.

"But I think if we got to the end of the season and got ourselves out of this position, there would be a real sense of pride, I suppose. It is hard to say.

"You could finish 10th and you think 'that is a terrible season' but given the position we were in and how hopefully we are going to get out of it, I still think there is a lot of positives to take out of that.

"Even when we were achieving great things on the park in terms of consistency levels in our league position, we said all along that it is not a given.

"We only got that because we worked so hard as a group and were lucky with injuries at times and all the other sides are trying to do the same as you.

"This year we have not been quite at the same level and other teams have and in this league you are going to lose more games than you win if you are not quite at it.

"So we don't take anything for granted. We just want to take ourselves out of it and if we do then we can sit down at the end of the season and say, no, it wasn't a great season but we got ourselves out of a tricky situation.''

Lasley believes the 2-1 home win over Inverness at the end of February was a turning point.

The former Plymouth player said: "Getting that performance three or weeks ago at Inverness, you looked about and thought 'yes, we still have some good players here'.

"It is that bit of belief and that is massive in football. And you take that on and we have managed to get a bit of momentum.''

Boss Ian Baraclough, who hopes to have experienced midfielder Stephen Pearson fit after he injured a knee against St Mirren, is keen to drag Thistle back into the relegation battle.

He said: "It gives us a chance to be within touching distance of Partick Thistle and that is an important factor going into the game.

"They will be desperate to pull away.

"They will have looked at it two or three weeks ago and thought that perhaps they were safe but now they are not so comfortable and we can make it more uncomfortable for them.''