10.50pm

Happy New Year everyone!

Today's result: Motherwell 0, Rangers 1.

A second half penalty by Kris Boyd was enough to settle this afternoon's encounter at Fir Park, a game in which both sides were reduced to ten men.  Although we didn't play as well as we did against Celtic on Saturday, we still created numerous chances against a very poor Rangers side and can consider ourselves unfortunate not to have taken at least a point.  The fact that the visitors' goalkeeper was voted Man of the Match says it all really.

Maurice Malpas stuck with the same starting eleven which drew with Celtic, with our three new signings from Ireland named among the substitutes.

Both teams had opportunities in a poor first half, with Clarkson passing up Motherwell's best chance when he failed to find the target from a Foran cross.  Rangers began to dominate in the closing stages of the half, going close on a number of occasions, and we were glad to hear the referee's whistle and go in at the interval on level terms.

Murphy replaced Jim Paterson for the second half, which turned out to be a completely different affair altogether with the game flowing from end to end at breakneck speed.  The visitors had a couple of decent openings, including one goalbound Novo effort that was blocked by one of his own team mates, but by far the best of the chances fell to Motherwell.  Unfortunately for us, we were up against a goalkeeper in inspired form, with McGregor denying both McDonald (twice) and Clarkson, with another effort from Foran cleared off the line by Hemdani. It was clear by this stage that one goal would be enough to win this game, but alas it was the visitors who made the breakthrough when Graeme Smith needlessly brought down Prso in the box when it seemed the Rangers striker would struggle to reach the ball.  Referee McCurry awarded a penalty and Boyd made no mistake from the spot.  We almost equalised when McGregor parried a Molloy shot, and a goalmouth scramble ensued with virtually every player on the park involved.  It seemed little more than handbags, but when the dust settled the referee decided to send off both Fitzpatrick of Motherwell and Prso of Rangers, even though the instigator of the incident appeared to be Novo.  In any event, Rangers held on for an extremely fortuitous three points.

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, Corrigan, Craigan, Reynolds, Paterson (Murphy 46), McGarry (Molloy 71), Kerr, Fitzpatrick, Foran, Clarkson (Keegan 82), McDonald.
Subs Not Used: Meldrum, Quinn, Darren Lee Smith, Connolly.

Booked: None.

Sent Off: Fitzpatrick (73).

Attendance: 10,338.

Maurice Malpas blasted referee Mike McCurry after the game over his decision to award Rangers a second half penalty.  When asked if he felt hard done by, he responded:
"That's an understatement. We're really upset about the penalty.  We created chances and I thought Allan McGregor was their best player.  I'm disappointed we didn't get anything. If we had lost a goal in open play, that would have been fine.  I just thought an experienced referee got conned a bit by an experienced striker."

On the goalmouth brawl which resulted in Fitzpatrick and Prso being red carded, the Motherwell manager added:
"I don't know what happened with the sending-off.  The referee won't speak to me about it.  They all get themselves cocooned. When I make a faux pas I've got to answer to it; when they make a mistake they go hiding."

Ricky's report of the Celtic game is now available.