Lasley, however, is relaxed about the situation and ahead of the Ladbrokes Premiership clash with St Mirren on Saturday, he said: "I enjoy all aspects of this job. It is all part of my learning as well.

"It is part of my job and I need to do it and get on with it and we will adapt.

"We have had experience before of that situation and we will do it again.

"We will prepare as normal. Ask any coach or manager the vast majority of preparation, 99 per cent, is done before a  match day.

"You still prefer your manager to be there, he is the leader and absolutely, you want him to be on that touchline but we will manage that situation.

"It is really about being prepared for the game and the players carrying out that plan and hopefully that will be the case tomorrow."

Motherwell occupy a peculiar position in the table, nine points behind eighth place Hibernian who are only nine points behind leaders Celtic and five points ahead of Hamilton, who are part of a bottom three which includes St Mirren and Dundee who are a further four points behind.

With games against the Buddies, Kilmarnock and Hamilton before the end of the year, Lasley is looking ahead rather than behind.

He said: "It is a massive week, there is no getting away from that. It really could shape how the second half of the season is going to look.

"The players and staff are well aware of that. We just want to show a bit of consistency this week.

"The one disappointing thing is we haven't shown that consistency in the last five or six weeks although there has been some really good performances within that.

"But we are looking for the results now that could hopefully push us on to looking above us.

"We still believe there is a chance to break into that (top group) but we are going to have to show consistency that we haven't shown and force our way in there."

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