7.20pm

The Official Motherwell Site reports that the club will be running free buses to the cup tie at Kilmarnock on Jan 25th.  Not only that, but admission prices at Rugby Park have been held at just £14 for adults and £7 for concessions.  Fans wanting details of the departure times of the buses should contact Lynne McKay at the club on 01698 333333.  Terry Butcher is quoted on the website as saying:
"This is our way of thanking the fans who have stood so loyally by the team since the start of the season.  It will be a crunch match with Killie and we will need all the backing we can get".

Meanwhile, for the SPL game at Rugby Park the following Wednesday night (29th), 'Well season ticket holders can gain admission for £13 (£1 for children) on production of a voucher.

The postponed Dunfermline game has been re-scheduled for Wednesday, Feb 5 with a 7.45pm kick-off.

Terry Butcher spoke to the local press after returning from his winter break, and looked ahead to the second half of the season:
"In a way it is rather like a second pre-season for us, although the players have only been off for 10 days, so they won’t have lost that much fitness-wise. Basically, it will be case of topping this up over the next few days.  We had a meeting with the players when they came back in on Monday and everyone realises it’s going to take a good shift right through till May if we are to start moving in the right direction.  Obviously, we would liked to have had more points on the board going into the winter break and having to play three games in-a-row away from home when we come back isn’t ideal.  

"The game against Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup is first up and that gives us a nice distraction from the league, so we are giving the game our full concentration just now.  We know the fixture at Tannadice is coming up on February 1 and that could be a big one for us, but we will approach that game when we come to it.  Everyone is just buzzing to be back and the atmosphere is great. The players know what they did and didn’t do in the first-half of the season, so we’re just looking to take the postives from it and try to take the good form we showed last December into 2003.

"The break came at the right time for both the players and the coaching staff.  December was a really long month for us as we had a particularly heavy schedule to contend with.  We achieved some good results to get the confidence going again, but the break gives everyone a chance to rest and come back fit and ready for the second-half of the season."

TB also confirmed that he hopes to bring in a couple of new players next week:
"We have one or two things happening at the moment with regards to bringing in new players, so I’m hopeful that by the start of next week there will be more news.  It would be good if we could complete these signings by next week to let them settle in, but we haven’t set a time limit, so if it takes until the end of January then that’s what’ll happen."

Quick snippet from today's Evening Times.  Apparently Falkirk's new stadium won't be ready until October at the earliest...

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