8.55pm

Last night's result: Motherwell 3, Raith Rovers 1 (CIS Cup 2nd Round).

We made it through to the third round of the CIS Cup with a hard-fought victory over an impressive Raith side at Fir Park last night.  Although the better team won in the end, Motherwell were far from impressive, particularly in the first half, and the scoreline definitely flatters us somewhat.  McGhee made several changes to the line-up, and I don't think any of players introduced last night could make any sort of case for a starting place against Hearts on Monday.  Still, the cup is all about getting through to the next round, and it's our name that will be in the hat for the 3rd round draw, which takes place at 2pm on Monday.

Ricky's report of the Raith game is available here.

Mark McGhee's post-match comments were as follows:
"When you make a lot of changes it can be difficult to gel, and as a team I don't think they gelled particularly well, but Raith Rovers made it a real cup tie.  The quality of our passing wasn't great and they played to their strengths and put some pressure on us with their set-pieces, and the quality of balls they were putting in forced us to defend.  I thought the two centre-halves (Brian McLean and William Kinniburgh) dealt with it well; at times they overplayed and got themselves a bit embarrassed, but they're trying to please me so it's about getting the balance and they need to learn from being in the team.

"Ross McCormack's goal probably one of the few quality moments of the game for us.  Four wins out of five is a great start, and I think if we'd made that the target when we were working hard in pre-season and doing all that running, we'd probably have squeezed another couple of seconds out of them."

Still no confirmation of any new signings, although one tabloid reported this morning that Rab Douglas won't be joining us after all as he is apparently unhappy with the length of the contract he's been offered.

The transfer window closes at midnight tomorrow...

Our game at Falkirk on September 22 will NOT be all-ticket.