9.45pm

Motherwell defeated English Premiership newcomers Birmingham City 2-1 at Fir Park tonight in an entertaining friendly in front of a crowd of 2,293.

All the goals came in the first half, with Motherwell opening the scoring through Derek Adams following a great run by James McFadden.  The visitors equalised after a defensive mix-up allowed Devlin in to score, but we soon restored our lead through that man McFadden.  Both teams had chances in the second half, most notably Motherwell though who had three clear cut opportunities.  Firstly, Faddy ballooned the ball over the bar with the goal at his mercy, Lehman (I think) had a header that was brilliantly tipped over by the City goalkeeper, and then we also had a shot cleared off the line.  Not to worry though as we held on for a deserved win.

There were a number of positives to take from tonight's game, but the most notable of these would have to be the performance of James McFadden who ran Birmingham's defence ragged at times (incidentally their defence included former Celtic player Oliver Tebilly, who is as much a Premiership player as I am).  I guess we should enjoy his talent while we can, as a few more performances like this and unfortunately he won't be at Fir Park too much longer.

A full match report (courtesy of Ricky) will appear here in due course.  Check back tomorrow for reports from our previous friendly games.

Team: Woods, Ramsay, Corrigan, Partridge, Hammell, Lasley, Adams (Clarke), Leitch, Pearson (Fagan 45), McFadden, Lehman.
Subs not used: Ewings, Kinniburgh, McDonald, Dempsie.

12.30am

I'm back!  The wedding went really well and we had a great time on honeymoon, although I can't believe the last three weeks have gone in so quickly!  Thanks to everyone who sent in cards and messages of support - they were greatly appreciated.  I've even had requests for some wedding photos to be posted to the site, although I'm not so sure about that!

Anyway, here's a quick summary of what's happened while I've been away.  Quite a lot, actually...

• Sadly, Eric Delouemaux and Stuart Elliott have both left the club, so I guess we won't be sponsoring Stuarty again next season.  Eric moved to Aberdeen for £50,000 while Elliott signed for English third division side Hull City for a fee in the region of £230,000.  Both amounts seem ridiculously small to me but I guess that's the harsh reality of being in administration.  We wish both players well at their new clubs.

• On a more positive note, we have made our first signings since going into administration by snapping up defender David Partridge (23) from Dundee Utd, striker Khaled Kemas (22) from Dundee and centre-half Daniel Sengewald (26) from German side SC Verl.  Sengewald has enjoyed spells at Royal Antwerp, 1860 Munich and FC Leipzig, Kemas (an Algerian international) was on the books of Paris St Germain before joining Dundee and played 3 full games and 12 as sub for the Dark Blues (didn't he score against us at Fir Park in the 4-2 game?), while Partridge is a former Welsh Under 21 internationalist.  If I can find out any more info on them then I will post it in due course.

• In the two friendlies we have played so far, we defeated Stenhousemuir 3-0 on July 16 thanks to goals from Lehman, Adams and an o.g., and won 2-0 at Love Street last night with goals from Lehman and Pearson, with Partridge making his debut.  Ricky has written match reports of both games and I'll get the posted to the site in due course. The friendly with Hamilton Accies, scheduled for last Friday night, was postponed due to the current financial problem being experienced by our Lanarkshire neighbours.  Next up are Birmingham City at Fir Park tomorrow evening, Cardiff on Sunday and Arbroath (away) a week on Tuesday.

• Former player Andy Goram has returned to the club as a part-time goalkeeping coach.  Terry Butcher said:
  "Andy is joining the club again in terms of being a goalkeeping coach.  It's good for Motherwell to have him back at the club.  It's a part-time position because he still wants to play again and he has his cricket as well.  But he's a character and he's a winner so I'm hoping that he passes on what he has learned."

• The club were fined £5,000 by the Scottish Football Association because of our poor disciplinary record last season.  We accumulated 3 red cards and 87 yellow cards during the 2001/02 campaign.

• The tabloids are making us favourites for relegation and reckon Terry Butcher will be the first managerial casualty of the new season.  No change there then.

• The Official Site has details of the squad numbers for the new campaign.

I think that's everything.  Hopefully normal service has now been resumed! 

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