7.15pm

Speaking in today's local press, Terry Butcher confirms that he is hopeful of signing two new players shortly, although no deals will be done until the playing staff return from their winter break next week:
"I can’t really say too much on it just now, but I’m hopeful of bringing in at least a couple of players.  I’ve certainly got plans in place to try and bring in a few new faces, although nothing will be done until I get back into the office on Monday."

However, these new faces will NOT be Spurs striker Steven Ferguson or former Partick Thistle defender Daniele Chiarini.  Butcher dismissed reports that he was set to offer Chiarini an 18-month contract as "absolute rubbish", and confirmed that Ferguson's loan period would not be extended:
"Steven has gone back to Spurs and I’d like to thank him for everything he has done when he was at the club.  At the moment, we’re looking to bring in players who are quite versatile and can play in a number of positions to help boost the squad and, unfortunately, Steven just didn’t quite fit the bill."

Butcher confirmed that former Falkirk striker Steven Craig had been offered training facilities at Fir Park after being allowed to leave Brockville on a free transfer:
"Steven’s been in training with us, but I haven’t seen enough of him to offer him a contract just now.  He will continue to train with us and that might give me a better chance to assess him, so we’ll wait and see what happens."

Despite currently sitting second-bottom of the league, TB has been fairly satisfied with the first-half of the campaign and is already looking forward to returning to action:
"I don’t think there is a team in the SPL we should be afraid of. Indeed, I’m more afraid of us because we are up and down so much and have tended to shoot ourselves in the foot at times.  However, the break has come at the right time for us as everyone will get the chance to come back fitter and stronger for the Scottish Cup tie against Kilmarnock on January 25."

Butcher was slightly disappointed with the cup draw, and added:
"We really wanted a home draw as Fir Park is becoming quite a formidable place for visiting teams and it would be great to get a good home crowd behind us.  It just means that we have three games on the road when we return which isn’t ideal, but we have beaten Kilmarnock at Rugby Park already this season, so we can take heart from that and hopefully achieve a similar result."

James McFadden will be available for the cup-tie, but will start a 4-match suspension immediately afterwards.

Terry Butcher and David Partridge will be invited by the SFA to explain their comments about Ian Fyfe following the Partick game. 

Cast your vote in our new Opinion Poll:

Who is your Player of the Year so far?