Motherwell FC's Curtis Main: Six straight wins make us confident about facing champions Celtic this Sunday

Main (26), speaking exclusively to the Motherwell Times, revealed that the players’ self belief is sky high after the weekend’s fine 2-1 home victory over Hearts which moved them back up to seventh place in the Scottish Premiership.

And champions Celtic will face ’Well just three days after playing a tough European tie at Valencia this Thursday.

The former Portsmouth forward said: “We’ll go there confident, there’s no doubt about that.

“But I think the Celtic squad’s strong enough to cope with returning from the European match.

“They are who they are. They deal with that at the start of the season. They have a squad for those things.

“I’m sure they’ll have a tough game on the Thursday but I don’t think that will play too much into our hands on the Sunday.

“We’ve just got to be diligent and go there and try and execute our game plan.”

Sunday’s win over the Jambos featured a freak winning goal for Motherwell as David Turnbull’s swerving free-kick in injury time was fumbled into the net by Hearts keeper Colin Doyle.

Main – who had been substituted when the goal was scored – couldn’t believe it.

He said: “From where I was sat I wasn’t expecting it to hit the back of the net, I’ll be honest!

“But it did. Early part of the season those things weren’t happening for us, they were happening maybe against us.

“So for us to be on the receiving end of that now is nice, we’ll take it and we’ll just keep going on.”

The air of positivity around Fir Park at the moment is in sharp contrast to Motherwell’s struggles earlier this season, which saw manager Stephen Robinson (pictured inset) under pressure after the club won just six of their opening 21 league matches.

“Everyone’s on a high,” Main said.

“Six wins on the bounce, it’s not easy to do. Especially in this league.

“There’s a lot of tough games but we’ve managed to do it.

“So it’s a positive and we want to build on that.

“We definitely feel that we’re capable of finishing above St Johnstone and Hibs.

“I think the lads have got to be given massive credit.

“Not too long ago people were maybe thinking about a little relegation battle second half of the season.

“But we’ve dug in, turned it around rapidly and we’re looking up the way now.”

Main said it was “pleasing to hear” that Motherwell fans are now enjoying watching the side’s current attacking style of play after a recent change of formation from an ‘agricultural’ 3-5-2 style employed earlier in the season.

And, from a personal point of view, the South Shields-born ace is benefitting from much better service than he was receiving in the first half of the campaign.

He added: “We’ll take the three points no matter how we can get them.

“But if fans are now enjoying a little bit different style of football as well then that’s even better.

“So we’ll try and continue to do that.

“I’m not sure about me being back to my best, but I’m certainly trying.

“The way we’re playing now is maybe creating a few more chances. I’m getting a little bit more involved in the play so hopefully we can keep doing that.

“It’s not always easy to play up top. But you’ve just got to knuckle down and work hard and when the chances do come you’ve got to be prepared to take them.”

Main’s Motherwell contract expires this summer and he revealed that Fir Park chiefs were yet to open negotiations about him extending his stay in North Lanarkshire.

But the striker said he was looking forward to the day coming when the club’s board would be in a position to offer him a new deal, helped by the recent resurgence.

He said: “To be honest, there’s not been any real talk. Before Christmas it was all about needing to get some points on the board and get away from that relegation zone.

“Now we’ve managed to turn that around and we’re looking up the way. I’m sure the club will look at these situations and discuss them in due course.

“So I look forward to that.”