8.40pm

Yesterday's result: Celtic 1, Motherwell 0.

Watched an illegal broadcast of the game in a local hostelry, and it's probably the best I've seen us play at Parkhead in years.  We dominated possession for long spells and created several excellent chances, but sadly we were unable to take any of them.  If we'd had a decent striker on the pitch then we'd probably have taken at least the point we deserved, but instead we lost out to a Riordan strike shortly after the interval that came as a result of a Celtic counter attack.  Still, it's difficult to be too critical when the midfield (yes, we actually played through that area of the park for once!) easily matched their more illustrious opponents, with loan signing Vadocz particularly impressive, while defensively we didn't give the Celtic attackers much of a sniff.  All in all, a much more encouraging performance than we've seen of late.

Team (4-5-1): 

Graeme Smith, Corrigan, Craigan, Reynolds, Danny Murphy, McBride, Kerr, McGarry, Vadocz, Darren Smith (Jamie Murphy 79), Clarkson.
Subs Not Used: Meldrum, Kinniburgh, Molloy, Quinn, Fitzpatrick, Connolly.

Booked: Craigan, Kerr.

Attendance: 58,654.

Maurice Malpas' post-match comments were as follows:
"It’s a disappointing result, it’s the same story, as we played well but we end up with nothing from the game and with no points. It’s about picking points up and coming to a place like this it is important that you do pick something up.

"I am disappointed as we deserved something from the game, we were as good as Celtic in possession, as good as Celtic in terms of chances. The one difference is and this is credit to Celtic, we had the ball 25 yards from their bye line and we give the ball away cheaply. We were in a good position to get a cross in the box and they have the quality to go up the park and score and that is the difference in the game.  Anyone watching the game today would have thought we were at least as good as Celtic.

"We have to have a greater belief in front of goal, and the biggest thing we have to do when we play well is win. We have to forget the sob stories, as when you play well you have to win. We seem to have it the other way about, we can play poorly and drag a result up, we played well against Kilmarnock and got nothing.  I am frustrated because we have been playing well and getting nothing, and it is something we need to overcome. To become a more consistent team we need to overcome this.

"I was delighted with all our performances, but Brian Kerr is a big player for us and we have offered him a big contract by Motherwell standards. I have said to the players if I can look in the mirror and that is the best offer we can give them it is up to them.

"The ball is back in a number of players courts at the moment, if they want to stay fine, if they want to move on we will wish them all the best and we’ll move on, that’s football. I would love to tie Brian up so that he can’t go anywhere but I can’t do that, as long as I know that I have made the best offer I can make if he gets something better it’s up to him what he does."

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