HAMILTON captain Dougie Imrie has told Motherwell fans not to waste their time abusing him at Fir Park today.

The 34-year-old midfielder expects to get stick from the home fans in the Lanarkshire derby, the final Premiership fixture before the winter break.

However, Imrie insists that, if anything, it will serve only to inspire him as ninth-placed Accies look to close the gap on the Steelmen to one point.

He said: “I am always on the end of plenty of abuse but they are good games to play in and a good game to finish the year.

“I thrive in these games. I don’t know whether fans think that giving me abuse will put me off, but it goes the other way for me.”

He added: “I love these games. Motherwell have had the upper hand in the past few years but it is there to be changed and, hopefully, we can do that.”

After a fine start to the season where they reached the Betfred Cup final only to lose to Celtic, Motherwell are in a form slump with no wins in the seven games following their Hampden Park appearance.

However, the former Inverness, St Mirren and Morton player, who is in his second spell at Hamilton, will take no heed of the Steelmen’s problems.

“Form goes out the window in derbies and I’m sure Motherwell will be looking at this game to get their season back on track.

“They have a had a good season but recently their form hasn’t been great but we can’t look at that. We have just got to go there and play the way we know we can and hopefully get the three points this time.

“It is a big game and hopefully we can finish the year off on a positive note. We wanted to extend the lead over the bottom teams and get close to the teams in the top six but it wasn’t to be.

“But there is no bigger incentive than a derby to try to get a positive result to finish the year.”