Edinburgh derby, Motherwell’s Watt & Martin in spotlight again

When the season is this stop-start, it’s difficult to gather momentum. Next week, there will be a second international window, with another coming in November.

Top-flight teams will be eager to enter the most recent break on high following yet another miserable midweek of European football for our clubs.

Hearts will be hoping to increase their lead to five points when Edinburgh’s top two teams meet on Saturday. Even for a night, really.

Hibs will make the trip across the capital with the intention of taking Leith Walk for the first time in over 100 years.

Robbie Neilson, the former Jambos manager, is correct to predict “a real barnstormer” between two unbeaten league rivals.

The maroon side’s record this term compares favorably to Hibs’, who has won and drawn five games, but the green and white have only recently improved.

Hibs won the derby twice last season, including the Boxing Day meeting in Gorgie, and won the other one.

However, this term has a significant difference. In the dugout at home, Derek McInnes.

Since taking over in the summer, the Hearts head coach has a two-point lead over reigning champions Celtic, who won’t play until Sunday. He has yet to lose in 90 minutes.

Although this will be his first derby experience, he has had previous victories at St. Johnstone, Aberdeen, and Kilmarnock.

Gray made it back from a poor start to clinch third place after losing the derby in his debut campaign.

Elliot Watt was at the forefront of Motherwell’s first league victory against Aberdeen last weekend.

The midfielder hosted the Saturday night show but was neither on the scoresheet nor the assist producer.

Jens Berthel Askou’s side were forced to sit back, suck up pressure, and hurry away on the break when the Dons burst out the blocks and appeared rejuvenated by their switch in system in the first half.

Watt was on hand to control the Steelmen’s movement, change the starting play, and pull the strings. He did it with a dash of energy and elegance.

He made the most entries into the final third (22) and sprayed the most claret and amber passes (110), with Opta deeming 102 of them to be accurate.

If Motherwell want to win at Celtic Park on Sunday with a positive result, they will need to do so.

For the manager who is subject to the most weekly scrutiny, it feels like a roulette match between Rangers’ Russell Martin and Aberdeen’s Jimmy Thelin.

The Swede’s performance improved against Motherwell, where they lost the game in stoppage-time, and a valiant effort in Europe against Shakhtar Donetsk has lowered the profile.

A lacklustre Europa League defeat to Sturm Graz may have increased the glare even more, as a result of Livingston’s unconvincing first league win of the year.

The Ibrox side conceded two awful first-half goals in Austria, despite the head coach claiming it was due to team mentality rather than tactics.

Things could get ugly if they don’t have the right mindset for Falkirk on Sunday.

Rangers will travel to one of the newly promoted Premiership teams for the second consecutive weekend. And in John McGlynn, Martin squares off against a cunning operator who enjoys playing anywhere he’s been, regardless of his level.