Celtics place belongs at the top, says Brown

20 January 2015 02:01

Celtic captain Scott Brown hopes the thought of reclaiming top spot in the Scottish Premiership will help drive his teammates on to victory against Motherwell on Wednesday.

The champions moved to within two points of Aberdeen at the top of the table following their 2-0 win away to Hamilton while the Dons were held to a 3-3 draw at home to Dundee.

It leaves the destiny of the league championship still firmly in the hands of Celtic, who have two games in hand over the Dons.

With Aberdeen not in action until Friday night, Celtic have the chance to leapfrog their rivals with victory against the Steelmen at Parkhead and Brown, whose side are chasing their fourth league title in a row, claims top spot is where his team belong.

"It will be huge for us, especially if we can win the two games in hand as we would go four points clear - it would be good for us and the club," said Brown.

"It's been a great contest, but we have a couple of games in hand to catch back up and go top of the league - where we should be.

"We were top of the league and we just thought we would keep going, and that would be us to the end of the season.

"We had a slight slip-up against Dundee United but we have made that right.

"The last couple of games, especially on the artificial pitch, we have showed how good we are, and we are creating chances and scoring goals now."

Motherwell, who claimed two successive second place finishes, have struggled for form this season.

After replacing Stuart McCall in December, new boss Ian Baraclough enjoyed back-to-back victories but has lost the last three matches.

However, after being held to a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park and only recording a 1-0 victory at Fir Park earlier this season the Celtic captain knows his side will have to show the right attitude to claim the three points.

"Stuart did a great job there for a couple of seasons and it's been hard for them since he left, and they have had a couple of good and bad results," Brown added.

"We struggled against them at Celtic Park at the start of the season so we will see what happens and hopefully we turn up with the right attitude.

"We just have to kick on now and show the rest of the teams in the league how good we are, and how well we can perform week in, week out."

Motherwell will have former Celtic midfielder Stephen Pearson available for the match at Celtic Park after he signed a deal until the end of the season following a spell playing in India.

Fixtures (1945 unless otherwise stated)

Wednesday

Celtic v Motherwell

Dundee v Kilmarnock

Partick Thistle v Hamilton

St Mirren v Dundee United

Source: AFP