6.45pm

Today's result: Airdrie 0, Motherwell 1 (Scottish Cup 3rd Round)

A Richie Foran header was enough to settle the Lanarkshire derby at New Broomfield this afternoon.  It was a poor performance from a Motherwell side who had to withstand considerable pressure from their First Division opponents in the second half, but we're through to the next round, which I guess is all that really matters in a cup tie.

Despite arriving at the ground just before 2pm, my mates and I had to queue for 30 mins before getting through the turnstiles at the East Stand.  Once we got inside we discovered Maurice Malpas had made two changes from the side which lost narrowly to Rangers on Tuesday, with new signings Danny Murphy and Trevor Molloy replacing the injured Jim Paterson and suspended Marc Fitzpatrick.

Motherwell started the match brightly, with Foran, McDonald and Murphy all going close.  The home side's only early opportunity resulted in a goalmouth scramble which was eventually cleared.  We took a deserved lead on the half hour mark when Foran headed home a Molloy cross, but the opening goal seemed to spark Airdrie to life and they almost equalised shortly afterwards when McKenna struck the crossbar with a long range effort.  Graeme Smith was called into action on the stroke of half time, but we reached the interval with our lead intact.

The game became increasingly scrappy after the break, with Motherwell rarely seen as an attacking force.  The home side brought on a couple of strikers as we became camped in our own penalty box for long periods, with Graeme Smith having to pull off a number of saves to maintain our lead.  McDonald and Clarkson both had chances on the break to kill the game, but we were still more than relieved to hear the referee's full time whistle.

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, Corrigan, Craigan, Reynolds, Murphy, Molloy (Darren Lee Smith 60), Kerr, McGarry, Foran, McDonald (Connolly 90), Clarkson.
Subs not used: Meldrum, Keegan, Quinn.

Scorer: Foran (31).

Booked: Murphy, Darren Lee Smith.

Attendance: 5924.

Maurice Malpas' post match comments were as follows:
"I thought it was a tremendous cup tie.  Conditions weren't the best and we never played particularly well, but we got our goal and hung on to Airdrie in the second half.  They had nothing to lose and threw bodies forward, threw balls forward, but I thought we coped with it quite well.

"I thought our crowd were fantastic. They said there were 4,500 coming today and I think they were about right on that one.  It was a good atmosphere for the players, especially after us playing the Old Firm in the last couple of games, but they came and cheered us and backed us until the end."