Motherwell midfielder Carl McHugh is still loving his football despite the club’s poor start to the season.

And he is now excited about the chance to keep pushing up the Ladbrokes Premiership table after consecutive wins over St Mirren and Dundee, which eased them away from the bottom two.

David Turnbull was the stand-out in those wins with two impressive goals but manager Stephen Robinson stressed the importance of McHugh in helping the teenager perform.

Robinson claimed McHugh’s statistics this season are comparable to Peter Haring of leaders Hearts and lauded his unsung efforts.

McHugh, who gave up the captaincy in the summer to focus on his own game, told Motherwell’s online TV service ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Rangers: “I’m loving it. It’s a strange thing to say when we haven’t had the results but I have really enjoyed my football this year. I have probably been happier with my personal form. I have really enjoyed playing in different positions as well.

“I’m just looking forward to cracking on with the rest of the season. There is only 10 games in and we still have such a great chance to go on and have a good season. It’s about where you finish, not your start, and we are fully confident in the dressing room that we can kick on and finish the season well.”

McHugh moved back into a three-man central defence early in the campaign following injuries but has been at the base of a midfield diamond in recent games after Robinson changed the team’s shape.

The Irishman said: “It’s worked well for us in the last two games but I’m sure we will move to different shapes in different games.

“The really good thing is we have shown we can adapt and play different shapes.

“We have so many different types of players in the squad who haven’t been used in recent games who are going to come in and make a huge difference as well.”