Bullish Malpas is happy to press home his point

MAURICE Malpas doesn't attempt to dress up Motherwell's dreadful start to the season. It is curious, then, that he takes such exception to the dressing down his Fir Park team have taken in the media for their form across his early weeks as a manager.

Malpas says his team, and by extension he means he himself, are "easy targets" for a press corps that has a knack of driving him demented. Understandably, the mumbled suggestions that he is a sardonic sort, lacking the effervescence required to step up from the assistant role under the departed Terry Butcher, rankle with him most.

Yet Malpas is in charge of the first Motherwell side since 1922 to lose their first four games of a season. His men are bottom of the Premierleague after succumbing to a 4-1 home defeat against Inverness last Saturday, having registered only the jammiest of wins over Falkirk the previous weekend. These facts lead Malpas to acknowledge that, ahead of their meeting with Hearts on their own patch this afternoon, his team also happen to be a legitimate target for us media monsters.

"We are not hiding behind the fact that we have had a bad start," he says. "We have had different individuals at different times make awful mistakes and those have cost us. But it is a load of tosh to go on about what I am supposed to be doing or not doing with 32 games of the season still to play.

"If you judged every manager over six league games there would be a lot of great managers - including Alex Ferguson - declared bad and a lot of bad managers built up to be what they are not.

"We are bottom of the league and have to take all the flak that goes along with that, and can offer no excuses for what has put us there. But we must stick together and I have a right to defend the club and the players against some slanted press coverage."

If his players were able to defend their goal with the same force that Malpas shows when defending himself against comments in print that have been exaggerated, Motherwell might not be in their perilous position.

Following victory for the Highland club in Lanarkshire on Saturday that even Inverness manager Charlie Christie admitted flattered his side, one report ran under a headline that had Malpas claiming he had lost his confidence and didn't know how to restore it. This was drawn from a quote in which the Motherwell manager actually said that his team had lost a bit of confidence and it wouldn't be easy getting it back.

"My confidence could never be shattered," Malpas says. "Anyone who knows me knows that. We could be in the depths of the depths and I'd retain belief in my abilities. That's just the way I am, so for it to be presented otherwise was a bit upsetting.

"The headline effectively implied that I am lacking in leadership, lacking in the belief that we will be able to pull ourselves away from bottom of the table. Nothing could be further from the truth because I know we will do that by working harder."

The week has been "tough going", Malpas confesses. It began with a team meeting in which frank views were exchanged with the manager, his assistant Paul Hegarty and the players all having their say. Tougher still is that a growing number of the Fir Park side's fans are losing faith in the idea that the Malpas-Hegarty partnership could provide the fire and fizz Butcher employed to energise Motherwell whenever their form slumped.

That happened more often than the brilliant sheen placed on Butcher's three-year tenure might cause anyone to think. Malpas is unfortunate in the respect that this season's start is not unusual when compared with a number of their openings over the past two decades. It seems that two years of the club achieving mid-table respectability has blinded some people to the facts.

As recently as 2001/02, Motherwell took only three points from their first six games. The season before they were even worse off - garnering only two points from the same number of matches. Moreover, three times in 20 years the Fir Park club have been saved from relegation only by factors other than their league placing - most recently, in the 2002-03 season that marked Butcher's first season in charge. And even when fortunes were turned around, Butcher's Motherwell could still endure the leanest of periods. A matter of 21 months ago they suffered a winless run that stretched to seven league games.

"We can't take any comfort in the fact that Motherwell might be traditionally slow starters," Malpas says. "It is not as if I'm going to say 'Ach, it's alright then because everyone knew this would happen'. I didn't. I expected us to have more points than three by now and the only positive is that we haven't been battered by any team. Rangers cut us up for 20 minutes but other than that we have been responsible for our own failings."

The reality is that Butcher may have taken flight to Sydney FC at just the right time. Regardless of who took charge, they would have struggled to flog more out of the squad that had run its course. Steven Hammell's departure and Keith Lasley's arrival may represent the only major changes to the playing pool in place at the end of last season, but within that there are a raft of youngsters now struggling to make good on the promise of a couple of years ago. There are also fewer seasoned professionals to drag them through rough periods.

Malpas doesn't have a first-choice striker aged over 23, and must field a midfield and defence that, with a couple of exceptions, are in their early 20s. Butcher's squad may always have been young but his teams was never as inexperienced as the line-ups Malpas has had no option but to select.

"I could have brought in any number of new players but with the money we are able to pay I couldn't make changes to improve on what we already have here," the Motherwell manager says. "I'm not complaining, but you do miss having older guys such as Gordon Marshall, Scott Leitch and Jim Hamilton around."

Despite the club's on-field difficulties, the likeable Malpas has derived enjoyment from the most unexpected source during his opening months as the man in charge. "I thought I would struggle talking to you guys, but I feel I have handled that side of things pretty well," he says. "Results apart, I've loved every minute of being my own man."

Sometimes the real problem for a team is not so much their leader but what he has to lead.

Taken from the Scotsman