St Mirren manager Oran Kearney has urged his players to drag Motherwell back down towards the relegation zone.

Ninth-placed Motherwell have a nine-point lead over bottom two St Mirren and Dundee ahead of the Buddies' trip to Fir Park on Saturday.

And Kearney admits the encounter has huge significance as his side aim to avoid being cast adrift by another team in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

"That's the motivation and for me we are looking up and we are looking at the two or three teams above us and the motivation has to be – can we bring those teams back in the mix and make them sweat more than anything else that? Can we put them under pressure?

"Games like Saturday become important. If we can get three points and cut the gap, it brings them into the edgy part of the league again.

"Even since I have got here that's been the psyche and what you try to do.

"People talk about it being a two or three-horse race. Ideally we want as many teams involved in that as possible, because when it comes towards the latter stages of the league it's so important that there are other teams thereabouts."