6.30pm

Not surprisingly, the club have rejected Preston's latest offer for James McFadden, and Craig Brown says he not make a third bid for the 19-year-old.  Terry Butcher is quoted as saying today:
"It is the second time they have put in a bid, but again they are absolutely nowhere near what we consider to be his value.  It's entirely up to them what they do next and we can't prevent people making bids because it's out of our control.  Their valuation comes nowhere near ours, it's as simple as that.

"He's only 19, but his potential is enormous and we don't know how good a player he is going to be - nobody knows.  But he's a very important player for us and a very important member of the squad we have, who are trying to survive in the SPL.  For us to sell one of our best assets for the money Preston are talking about is very, very unfair on the the fans and the football club.

"Obviously we are in administration and we have to consider every offer that comes in for the players, but that's the only offer that we've had.  But the player's very happy here and at least wants to play the full season and then we'll have a look in the summer."

Suffering from some post Christmas and New Year blues?  Then take a look at the report of yesterday's game that appeared on the Official (yes, OFFICIAL!) Partick Thistle website.  You'll think you were at a different game!

11.30am

This is the first chance I have had to update the site since yesterday's 2-2 draw with Partick Thistle, and I still can't believe the performance of the match officials.  Referee Ian Fyfe's sent off James McFadden for comitting two fouls, neither of which was worthy of a yellow card in my opinion, while Thistle's Gerry Britton had at least six free-kicks awarded against him before being cautioned for a completely unrelated offence.  The penalty decision that led to Partick's second goal also seemed very soft to say the least.  The ref completely lost the place for a long spell in the first half, and it got to the stage where every player who committed a foul was yellow carded.  As a result, it looks as though McFadden will now be banned for four games, and goodness knows what other suspensions we will have incurred.

Concentrating on the football, an unusual team selection saw Dirk Lehmann start the match in defence with young David Clarkson partnering McFadden in attack.  Dirk battled well, but the whole team clearly performed much better when he was moved to centre-forward in the second half.  Clarkson opened the scoring for us in the 9th minute with an overhead kick following confusion in the Thistle defence, but the visitors equalised courtesy of a Burns free-kick after 19 mins.  Following the spree of red and yellow cards, it was Partick who took the lead shortly after the interval thanks to a Burns penalty, and they seemed content to sit on their lead and use their one man advantage to get players behind the ball and keep possession.  Full credit to Motherwell though, and we hit the bar and then the post as we started to dominate the game.  The equaliser finally came in 77 mins, when Partridge floated in a header from the back post.

The draw keeps us one point clear of Dundee Utd going in to the winter break.  Our match at Tannadice on Feb 1 is looming large on the horizon already...

Anyway, enough of my inane ramblings.  You can read Ricky's report of the match here. 

Not surprisingly, Terry Butcher was raging with the referee's performance in yesterday's game:
"I've seen some poor refereeing performances in my time but...I can't say what I'd like to say or else I would be up in front of the beaks.  We were fired up but I defy anybody to be on a pitch when there's refereeing like that and not be fired up.  I don't think McFadden went in late at all when he was sent off. The ball was there to be won and both players were committed to going for it. Their player just got to the ball a split second before him.  I think it was James' first foul whilst other players were allowed numerous fouls and I was angry about that. But I think James' reputation preceded him.

"I felt we showed magnificent passion, commitment and attitude to get back into the game when we were 2-1 down.  We had arguably our best player sent off but we were brilliant when we were down to 10 men. We made more chances with 10 men than we did with 11."

The Official Preston North End website confirms that they have made an improved offer for James McFadden.  The website states:
"I can confirm that earlier this week the chairman sent a written bid to Motherwell.  It is a considerable offer and is big money for this club.  It is an improved offer on the one we made earlier in the season."

Ricky informs me that the draw for the 3rd Round of the Scottish Cup will take place at the weekend.  Hamilton Accies away will do me nicely!

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