McGhee: my future is at Motherwell FC

Mark McGhee hopes to remain in the Motherwell dugout with his assistant manager James McFadden beyond the expiry of McGhee's contract this summer (Pic by Alan Watson)

The Scotland assistant gaffer (59) has managed a total of 946 club games for eight different teams north and south of the border and sees his future with the Steelmen.

“I would be very happy to stay on,” McGhee said.

“My ambition remains to go beyond 1000 games and I’d like to do that with Motherwell.

“As far as I’m concerned my future is here.

“My contract is up at the end of the season. The club haven’t spoken to me – I’m waiting to hear.”

McGhee took over for his second spell at Motherwell in October 2015, miraculously leading the Steelmen to a fifth place finish in the Scottish Premiership having been second bottom in February.

Although this season has been a rollercoaster ride for Motherwell fans, the club are currently sixth in the table but face a dogfight to stay there with the bottom seven teams separated by just six points.

Motherwell have no fixture this Saturday but face a daunting couple of Scottish Premiership games next week with a trip to Aberdeen on the Wednesday before a visit to Celtic Park to face the champions elect a week on Saturday.

With McGhee’s contract running down, garnering any points from either of those matches would further boost the gaffer’s CV and go a long way to impressing the Motherwell directors who are deciding on his future.

McGhee said: “The Aberdeen game is a rearranged one (after a floodlight failure forced the abandonment of the previous clash at Pittodrie after just eight minutes on December 13).

“We started well up there the last time. We watched the video yesterday and there was lots to see which showed we can compete with them.

“Our game at Celtic Park will be a difficult one as they are playing very well.

“We want to be the first team to beat Celtic this season. Someone will do it and we want to be the first.

“Part of our belief about beating Celtic will come from the Aberdeen game.

“If we go to Aberdeen and play really well then we can go to Parkhead knowing we are in good form and give it a go.”

McGhee did lead Motherwell to a famous 2-1 league victory at Parkhead last season and his troops were impressive in going 2-0 and 3-2 up against Celtic in a Premiership encounter at Fir Park on December 3 before going down to an agonising 4-3 loss late on.