ANYONE glancing at the SPFL Premiership table for the first time this season might notice a couple of things that cause them to do a double-take.

Hamilton Academical in second? Inverness Caledonian Thistle tucked in just behind them? Celtic only in fourth? None of that would have been widely predicted.

They may then allow their finger to scan down the division until reaching the teams in the lower reaches. Partick Thistle, St Mirren and Ross County all struggling may not induce any major feelings of shock but Motherwell? Just what are they doing down there?

It is, in a strange way, to the credit of manager Stuart ­McCall and his players that the sight of the Fir Park side in tenth place after eight matches will surprise those who haven't been monitoring the Scottish scene too closely.

For most of the Noughties, Motherwell were a mid-ranking Premier League team. There was the occasional deviation in that time but by and large anything between fifth and eighth was perceived to be Motherwell's natural position in the pecking order.

Under McCall, however, they have outperformed that expectation, and consistently too. In 2011/12, McCall's first full season after succeeding Craig Brown halfway through the previous campaign, they finished third. In the two subsequent seasons they have been runners-up to champions Celtic.

They have also qualified for Europe in six out of the last seven seasons, and done so with McCall having to effectively rebuild his squad each summer.

What, then, has gone wrong this term?

Has it simply been one summer of chopping and changing too many?

Ironically, compared to previous years, the upheaval at Fir Park wasn't too extreme this time but it was apparent from early in the close season that there would be little money for McCall to spend.

The manager revealed he expected any signings would likely have to be loan moves, or players who wouldn't command large wages. Shaun Hutchinson, a key defensive figure, and striker Henri Anier moved on, while a number of injuries early in the campaign have also not helped the Motherwell cause.

"You have to be tight with your budget every year; you will lose good players and you will look to replace them with those of a similar standard," according to Pat Nevin, the former Motherwell chief executive.

"But eventually there comes a year when it doesn't quite happen for you. Maybe a certain group of players don't work quite as well for a number of reasons; you might make the wrong choices, it might be the chemistry or something else.

"If you look at most teams that are successful, it's a continual build. You can maybe lose one or two and that's fine.

"But in recent years at Motherwell it's not been rebuilding but massive damage repair after a bomb has hit. It's not a controlled build.

"That's what looks like has happened at Motherwell. It's not really anyone's fault, that's just the finances of Scottish football."

Despite the poor start to the campaign, Nevin felt McCall should be considered above any criticism.

"He has done an amazing job there for so long," he added. "In some people's eyes he's maybe become a victim of his own success, but I would say he's just been successful and now he's suffering a bit.

"It must be very stressful, tiring and time-consuming but Stuart has shown the patience and determination to see it through every season. Motherwell are going through a rough patch just now but there's so little between most of the clubs in that division that there is no reason why he can't get them back up the table."