The Scottish Cup 4th Round draw took place today, and Motherwell will travel to face either Inverurie Loco Works or Vale of Leithen on Saturday, January 10.  Don't think I've ever seen Motherwell take on non-league opposition before, although given our current run of form, both side might fancy their chances!  Hopefully the tie isn't switched to a neutral venue.

Saturday's result: Aberdeen 2, Motherwell 0.

Sounds like another dismal showing from Motherwell at Pittodrie on Saturday.  Second half goals from McDonald and Miller gave the home side victory, the second goal coming via the penalty spot after Paul Quinn had been dismissed for a professional foul.  Strange team selection too, with a striking partnership of Porter and Murphy while Sutton was left on the bench all afternoon.  Since beating Hamilton Accies at the start of November, we've scored just one goal in five matches and dropped from 3rd to 10th in the league table.  Ah well, at least we've got a nice easy game up next, against a Hearts team who have just won 5 games in a row...

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, Quinn, Hammell, Reynolds, Malcolm, Klimpl, Lasley, Fitzpatrick, Hughes, Murphy (Saunders 67), Porter.
Subs Not Used: Nielsen, Sutton, McGarry, McHugh, Hutchinson, Page.

Sent off: Quinn (65)

Booked: Graeme Smith, Malcolm, Reynolds.

Attendance: 10,302.

Mark McGhee's post-match comments were as follows:
"The first thing I wanted to see today was that what happened last week was not chronic.  First and foremost we put that to bed. We turned up today and competed every bit as well as Aberdeen and put as much as they did into the game.  I always felt the first goal would be the winner and we looked less likely to get that than they did in the second half and we ended up losing the game. But it was a lot, lot better."

McGhee had no complaints with the decision that saw Paul Quinn sent off for hauling down Darren Mackie in the box, with Lee Miller scoring from the resultant penalty:
"It was a red card  He had just came back from being up the park and he had switched off and got caught wrong side.  He tried his best to make it look as if the two of them had fallen to the ground to kid the ref on but the referee was right and justified in sending him off."

It seems that Motherwell won't be following up their interest in Swedish defender Thomas Magnusson after the trialist criticised the club in this Herald article.  I suppose that if I were a rubbish trialist who had just failed to win a contract, I'd probably have said something similar myself.

Admission prices for our game at St Mirren on January 3 have been cut to £15, £10 and £5 to mark the last ever match to take place at Love Street.

Nottingham Forest have admitted they are interested in signing Chris Porter on loan in January, but the English striker played down any transfer talk last week by saying he is happy where he is:
"I can't and won't let that affect my game.  As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy as a Motherwell player until someone tells me different.  I've got to concentrate on playing well and scoring goals for the team."