MARK McGHEE has put his faith in Motherwell’s new fab four to ignite their Premiership campaign.

The Fir Park club head to Rugby Park this afternoon on the opening day of the season fuelled by fresh optimism on the back of three straight Betfred Cup victories and high on morale following a fifth-placed finish last term.

With the exception of Stephen Pearson and Ben Hall, McGhee has managed to keep hold of the nucleus of the team that did so well in the latter part of the previous campaign.

On top of that, he has also brought in the likes of centre-half Ben Heneghan, midfielder Carl McHugh, right-back Richard Tait and trialist Craig Clay who he hopes will pen a deal soon.

And it is with this group McGhee is confident he has the making of a solid group on the eve of another busy season.

“Optimism isn’t quite the word, we’re more encouraged,” joked the Motherwell manager. “It’s one down from optimism!

“Like all the clubs in our league, you make changes and it’s like you start again. Then you have to learn is what you’ve got as good as it looks or better than it looks.

“At the moment we are content with the signings we have made in Tait, Heneghan and McHugh in particular. We are still in the process of trying to do a deal with Clay, I’d love to do that. If we get those four I think we’ll have done really good business.

“Jacob Blyth has not kicked on yet because he’s had small injuries, so hopefully there will be him as well. But the four that have been playing have really improved us as a squad.

“We have to now see the reality of that. That’s what it feels like and that’s what it looked like in the League Cup games and in training. We now have to see that how it manifests in the league against the likes of Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, Dundee and Rangers.”

McGhee faces a familiar face in the opposing dug out today but one that will be a fresh coaching adversary.

The Well boss crossed paths with Killie manager Lee Clark during their time at Newcastle but today’s Premiership meeting at Rugby Park will be the first time the two have locked horns, and it is something the Fir Park man is looking forward to.

“I know Lee well. He was a midfield player and a really good player. He was a lad I really liked and I liked over the years, he has a nice way about him. I’m looking forward to seeing him.

“I’ve not come across him as a manager but I imagine he’s fairly intense. He’ll be serious about what he does.

“We can only go there and worry about ourselves, not Lee or Kilmarnock.”

Despite today representing the first league game, McGhee has declared his team are more ready than ever before to hit the ground running.

Four Betfred Cup games have come and gone – including three victories – and while Rangers manager Mark Warburton is far from enamoured at the format, McGhee insists he has no complaints.

He said: “It’s been brilliant. From our point of view it’s really been good and has got us up and focused.

“Every game has been competitive as we’ve had to win. It’s not been a cake walk for us, it was never going to be, but we’ve had to earn our wins.

“We still feel the Rangers game came a wee bit early and we’d like another go at that. We go there in the third or fourth game of the season so we have the chance to improve on what happened that day.

“Generally speaking the four matches have been pretty good.”