Defences hold key - Foran
Inverness captain Richie Foran believes defence could be key to victory when his side welcomes Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday.
The Fir Park side scored 12 goals and conceded only two in the first three games between the teams last season to take nine points, although Terry Butcher's men won 4-3 in the last meeting of the campaign.
Inverness began this season with a 3-0 home win over St Mirren, followed it up with a 1-0 victory at Dundee United and sit at thetop of the table on goal difference over Aberdeen.
However, former Well forward Foran revealed a little trepidation as he looked forward to the visit of the Steelmen.
He said: "It has been a very positive start, four goals and two clean sheets but we are keeping our feet on the ground.
"Motherwell more or less battered us three games out of four last year so they are a tough side to play against.
"They have lost a bit of pace and big Michael Higdon is a big loss for them although they brought in some good replacements.
"We will probably be favourites which we don't mind so we are looking forward to getting three out of three.
"But you have that little worry that they can put four or five past us and Motherwell players will have it as well, that we can do the same to them.
"There are a lot of creative players on show.
"So I think it is a game where you really need your defence to be on top. The main thing is to get the defence on form to keep the goals at bay."
Butcher is trying to forget last season's punishing defeats against his former club but expects a response from Stuart McCall's side following their 3-1 home loss to Aberdeen last week.
Stevie Hammell is convinced a new-look Motherwell team will bounce back quickly from their home defeat by Aberdeen.
Motherwell travel to face an Inverness side who have won both of their Scottish Premiership games without conceding a goal on the back of a 3-1 loss that came two days after they returned from their Europa League trip to Russia.
Manager Stuart McCall claimed after the game that they would bounce back and was comfortable with people writing his team off after they lost regular starters Michael Higdon, Henrik Ojamaa, Chris Humphrey, Tom Hateley, Darren Randolph and Nicky Law this summer.
Hammell, who has made 468 appearances for Motherwell, has seen plenty of changes at Fir Park over the years and he is confident they will adapt.
The 31-year-old left-back said: "The changes this year have been a bit more drastic than previous years, this season pretty much six of the starting XI has changed.
"It might take a bit more time to click and play a different style of football but the players we have got in are high quality.
"It won't be long before we are back to our best.
"If you've got good players then you are going to cause other teams problems. The style of play might be a little bit different but it can still be effective.
"The players we have got are enough to cause any team in this league problems."
Hammell, who was in the Scotland squad that faced England in midweek, added: "We put pressure on ourselves to get back to winning ways.
"Teams have been wanting to beat us for a few years, we've been up there and used to that.
"We have just got on with our own thing in here and not really worried about that.
"We have just concentrated on ourselves and not worried about that and it has worked for us, and that's what we'll look to do this season."
McCall remains on the lookout for a right winger with pace to replace Humphrey.
"We've got another lad in on trial at the moment and the under-21s league in England kicks off next and there are a couple of players I want to have a look at," he said.
"I would imagine it would be a loanee from down south but there might be somebody out there who fancies coming and putting themselves in the shop window."
Source: PA
