Higdon aims to get back on goal trail after two blanks

Higdon netted six goals in September, including a hat-trick against Inverness, to take Motherwell to the top of the table before last weekend’s defeat by Celtic.

Motherwell are looking to bounce back from successive 2-0 defeats by the Old Firm when they host Dundee United tomorrow.

Higdon said: “I’ve been playing well and hopefully that will continue. I’m leading the scoring charts with seven goals, and I’m very happy with that.

“The team have been playing well, minus the last two games, so it’s been a good start.

“I feel like I can score in every game at the moment. I haven’t scored in the last two, which is disappointing, so I’m aiming to put that right tomorrow.

“I’ve been on the other end of it where I’ve not been scoring or hitting the stand, so I like it at the moment.”

Higdon was not universally popular among the Fir Park support after arriving from St Mirren before the start of last season, but he has emphatically won over the sceptics.

The 29-year-old, who has now notched 23 goals in 51 games for Motherwell is out of contract in the summer but is open to extension talks, which are set to take place before Christmas. “I’m very settled here,” the Liverpudlian said. “I enjoy the club. It’s a long way to go until we talk about contracts but my family is settled here and I have a little girl in school.

“But you just never know in football what’s round the corner.”

United manager Peter Houston has called on his side to get back to basics after a recent run of poor form which has seen them fail to win in the league since beating Dundee at Tannadice in August.

They head for Lanarkshire second bottom and looking to erase the memory of last weekend’s 4-0 defeat away to Inverness and Houston believes getting back to what they are good at can help his side in their efforts to kick-start their season.

He said: “We all know what we did last weekend wasn’t good enough. That performance wasn’t anywhere near the standard we’re capable of.

“So we have to try and get back to basics and stop conceding goals because our heads seem to go down once we do.

“It’s fair to say the boys are lacking a bit of confidence just now so it’s a case of trying to get that back, hopefully starting at Motherwell.

“We have worked extremely hard on the training pitch all this week trying to become hard to beat again, which is the key to most things in football.”