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The Motherwell Times reports that Motherwell administrator Bryan Jackson hope to pay out to creditors in around four weeks time as no objections have been launched.  Jackson also mentions that the club are involved in "complicated litigation" against John Spencer, apparently involving money loaned to him and other matters relating to his contract.  The settlement sought by MFC is in the region of £250,000, which could be used to make a second dividend to creditors.

Several Motherwell players have been away on international duty this week.  Stephen Craigan played the full 90 mins of Northern Ireland's 1-0 win in Estonia, while Scott McDonald made a substitute appearance for Australia's Under-23 side in their 0-0 draw against Greece in Athens.  Meanwhile, William Kinniburgh came on as a second half substitute for Scotland's Under-21s in their 2-0 defeat to Romania Under-21s at Firhill.  David Clarkson was withdrawn from the squad after he turned up to last Sunday's training session feeling unwell.

In today's local press, Terry Butcher hit out at some sections of the 'Well support who criticised Gordon Marshall following his blunder at Tannadice on Saturday.  He said:
"Gordon was distraught when he got back to the dressing room as he knew he'd made a mistake.  However, all credit to him, as he came in on Monday morning for training and worked his socks off.  I think it's absolutely outrageous the stick Gordon got as he made some wonderful saves against Dundee Utd.  Indeed, I can think of plenty of games this season where he's kept us in it. Do these people not remember his performance at Parkhead against Celtic?  He's a great professional and I'm extremely angry at some of the criticism he's got for one mistake.

"Any insult against one of my players is an insult against me and the fans should remember that.  The majority of them have been brilliant in backing us this season, but when you get one or two idiots having a go at the players then it does make you angry.  If a goalkeeper makes a mistake more often than not it's punished whereas if a defender makes a mistake then it can lead to a goal, but not always, and that's why goalkeepers get plenty of stick when they make mistakes.

"However, we win as a team and we lose as a team. It wasn't Gordon Marshall's fault and it wasn't the fault of our forwards that we couldn't score on Saturday. It was just one of those things."

Looking back on the Dundee Utd game in general, TB added:
"I couldn't believe we lost the game as we dominated for the majority of it.  If you look at the stats we had 10 shots on target and six off target.  We also hit the woodwork and managed 11 corners yet we couldn't get the goal.  If we'd scored then I think we would have went on to win the game but Paul Gallacher was on form in the Utd goal.

"It shows we must have been doing our job right if the best player on the park was the home goalkeeper and if we keep on playing like this in our remaining four fixtures then we should win more than we lose.  We were maybe a bit ring rusty last week against Hibs after the Hearts game had been called off as we didn't play that well.  However, the boys dug in on Saturday and I found it difficult to have a go at them afterwards as we didn't do much wrong."

With Rangers visiting Fir Park on Sunday after losing last weeks' Old Firm encounter, TB said:
"Rangers will be hurting and I'm expecting them to bounce back," said Butcher.  They haven't had a great season, but even though they've got nothing left to play for, their fans will demand a performance.  They are giving some of their younger players a chance and that will make it difficult for us as they all want to impress Alex McLeish.  However, they also have international players such as Ronald and Frank De Boer, Craig Moore, Steven Thompson and Peter Lovenkrands so you can never underestimate them.

"Make no mistake this will be a very, very hard game for us, but we believe we can beat anyone at Fir Park.  Over the last few years we have done quite well at home against the Old Firm and I want to try and keep that record up.  The game is live on the television and we are desperate to pick up the three points after only taking one from our last two away games."

Cast your vote in our TWO new opinion polls:

Should Bryan Jackson be offered a job in some capacity by MFC once the club is out of administration?

and

Who should captain the side while Scott Leitch is injured?