9.05pm

Yesterday's result: Motherwell 1, Celtic 4.

I wasn't at Fir Park yesterday, as the wife and I have in fact just got back from a weekend city break in Oslo.  Nice city, although it was freezing cold and bloomin' expensive.  With the assistance of the guy who runs the Norway Celtic Supporters' Club, I managed to find a bar that was showing yesterday's game (much to Mrs Reid's annoyance), although I should probably have stuck to the sight-seeing as the 4-1 humping didn't make pleasant viewing as I nursed my £5 half-pint of beer.

With Bob Malcolm suspended, in from nowhere came Brian McLean, with Paul Quinn moving to right-midfield in an attempt to "double up" on Aiden McTraitor. Interesting idea, but it seemed to cause disruption to our back line which had seemingly been so solid last week at Parkhead, with Celtic looking like scoring from virtually every ball they played into the box.  

The visitors went 1-0 up early on from a McManus header, with Graeme Smith looking none too clever, although we had the Celtic captain to thank when he put through his own net shortly afterwards to bring us level, following good build up play from Hughes and McCormack. Alas, our joy was short lived as Celtic were soon back in front, with a deflected shot from Scott McDonald (spit!) and a powerful Vennegoor of Hesselink header making the half time score 3-1 to the visitors.

The game was over as a contest when Vennegor of Hesselink took advantage of some woeful defending to add a fourth goal after 56 mins, and although we then went on to enjoy a decent spell of possession we only once troubled Boruc in the Celtic goal.

There's no doubt that we were well beaten yesterday and can have no complaints at the scoreline, but I'm more than a little disappointed at the way we made it so easy for Celtic with such poor defending (and goalkeeping).  Also, where on earth was Keith Lasley?  With Malcolm suspended I assumed Lasley would come in as a straight replacement to give us some much needed bite in the middle of the park, an area we were sadly lacking in yesterday.  

Mind you, if you'd offered me three points from the two games against Celtic a week or so ago, I'd have bitten your hand off for it.

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, Brian McLean, Craigan, Reynolds, Hammell, McLean, Hughes, Fitzpatrick (Darren Smith 71), Lappin (McGarry 57), McCormack, Porter (Murphy 82). 
Subs Not Used: Daniels, Lasley, Forbes, Archdeacon.

Motherwell scorer:: McManus (24 og).

Booked: McCormack.

Attendance: 9,771.

Mark McGhee's post-match comments were as follows:
"I thought we played a lot better this week than we did last week.  We matched them in every area of the field, I thought our shape was fine and a lot of our attacking play was fine.  There were a lot of things I was quite pleased about and positive about.  I thought we were well in the game and lost from set-pieces.  We had as many corners and set-pieces as them but Nakamura and Barry Robson's quality was the difference.  Every time they looked as if they might score, and although we were beaten by the better team, that was the reason we lost by that margin.

"If we beat Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hibs then I think we will finish in third place."

It seems we are to have yet another new strip next season, our third in consecutive years.  The change is due to a new shirt sponsor, with German gambling firm JAXX agreeing a £200,000 deal to have their brand appear on our jerseys from 2008/09.  No, I've never heard of them either.

Photos of the new home and away kits are available from the Official Site.  I usually buy at least one of them, but I think I'll be saving myself £40 this time round as I don't like either one of them, particularly the away jersey which looks like a rather bland and uninspiring training top.

The home kit will be launched on July 3rd, with the away one available at the Open Day scheduled for the end of July. 

The "top six" fixtures were announced last week, and we seem to have done not too badly.  We're at home to Dundee Utd in a massive game on Saturday, April 26 (12.30pm, live on Setanta), then home to Celtic (again) the following Sunday (also live on the telly).  A trip to Ibrox is up next on Wednesday, May 7 (again, live on Setanta) before we play Aberdeen on the Saturday, in a game I'll miss due to a wedding! :(

The last day of the season (Sunday, May 18) sees us travel to Easter Road in what could be a "winner takes all" game in terms of the UEFA Cup spot.  

There's also our home match with Rangers which somehow has to be scheduled in before the end of the season.

Quick word of thanks to Fraz and Speedie for organising last Thursday's sold out "An Evening with Tam Cowan".  It was a fantastic night, with over 20 grand raised towards a permanent memorial for Phil O'Donnell, although I'm still haunted by the image of Wayne Rooney and Liz Mullen together...

While we're on the subject of Phil O'Donnell, it was reported last week that Motherwell could be set to take on Manchester United at Fir Park in a pre-season friendly to officially mark the renaming of the Main Stand.

Incidentally, I take back what I said last week about Bob Malcolm's sending off at Parkhead being "harsh".  Having seen it on TV, the tackle could easily have resulted in a broken leg, and a red card was absolutely the correct decision. 

Ross McCormack has been nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award, along with Aiden McTraitor, Steven Fletcher (Hibs), Scott Arfield (Falkirk) and Kevin McDonald (Dundee).  The winner will be announced on April 20.

With the first-team squad in Malaga, a young reserve side went down 3-0 to their St Mirren counterparts at Love Street last week. Team:
Coutts, Fallon, Wilson, Gupwell (Martin - 83mins), Hutchinson, McAuliffe, Meechan (Wishart - 72mins), Forbes, Slane, Maguire, McHugh
Subs Not Used: Hyslop (GK), Pollock

Click here for a Sunday Herald article on Mark McGhee and Stephen Hughes.