MOTHERWELL make the short journey from North Lanarkshire to the East End of Glasgow this afternoon hoping to end a six-year barren sequence against championship-chasing Celtic.

Since their last success against the most dominant force in Scottish football this century – a 2-1 victory under Mark McGhee at Parkhead on December 18, 2015 – the Steelmen have enjoyed little in the way of success against today’s opponents.

It came on the afternoon that the statue of Lisbon Lions captain Billy McNeill was unveiled outside the stadium prior to the kick-off but that sight was one of the few moments of cheer for those who turned up anticipating a comfortable win for Ronny Deila’s side.

There have been 21 subsequent meetings between the clubs since then, with 18 wins for the Glasgow giants (including those in the League Cup and Scottish Cup finals of 2017/18) plus three draws. 

Full-back-cum-midfielder Liam Grimshaw, who was on loan from Manchester United at the time, is the only one of the 14 visitors stripped for action six years who could be involved for the visitors this time around and he would love a repeat of that scoreline on this occasion.

“I thought I was the only survivor from that team,” said the 26-year-old.

“However, that’s some statistic, those 21 matches...we’ll need to give them a good game and see if we can put that right.

“We’ve been playing pretty well recently so there’s no reason why we can’t put in another good performance. Celtic have had a good start to the season, although they’ll be disappointed not to be above Rangers.

“They’ve been playing attractive football and scoring plenty of goals so it’ll be a real test for us but we’ve been doing well ourselves recently and there’s no reason why we can’t go and nick one at the other end.”

Motherwell’s victory in 2015 came as a shock and Griffiths, making his first appearance at the famous old stadium, wasn’t in a position to celebrate enthusiastically afterwards.

“What I remember about the build-up was that I’d been ill all week and it was touch and go as to whether I’d be able to play at all,” said the 26-year-old.

“It was my first appearance at Parkhead and I hadn’t really expected to play in the first place but I started and we got to half-time with the score 0-0. I wasn’t well enough to go back out for the second half, unfortunately, and I was still getting changed after my shower when I heard a huge cheer go up and I knew that Celtic had scored – from a deflected Nir Bitton shot, as it turned out.  

“By the time I took my place in the stand, though, Louis Moult had equalised for us and, shortly afterwards, he put us 2-1 up with a penalty after Jozo Simunovic brought down Scott McDonald. It was a game I’ll always remember.

“Of course, you always have a puncher’s chance in these games. It’s just 11 men v another 11 men and if we turn up and do ourselves justice then we’ll give ourselves half a chance.

“You need to try and exploit team’s weaknesses and Celtic like to commit a lot of players forward so that’s maybe something we can look at. We might be able to sneak one due to the way they play but it’s also worth pointing out that they have the best defensive record in the Premiership so they’re obviously doing something right.”

Motherwell have been doing a few things right themselves in recent weeks. From the low point of their frightful 6-1 home defeat by Rangers on Halloween, they’ve beaten fellow top-six clubs and drawn away to Premier Sports Cup finalists Hibernian.

Graham Alexander’s men left Ibrox with a point in September and Grimshaw sees no reason why they can’t emulate that feat today.

“We’ve had wins against  Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee United in that time but we haven’t taken too many points off the Old Firm,” he said.

“Budget-wise, they’re vastly superior to us but we deserved our draw against Rangers earlier in the season and, while we know we won’t get too many chances, it’s up to us to take the ones that come along.

“It’s the closest we have to a local derby at the moment because it’s only 20 minutes away on the bus so we’ll give it our best shot and see where that takes us.”