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Motherwell FC News
| March 2001 |
| Sunday, March 4 |
A superb performance from a shadow Motherwell side saw us leave Easter Road with a point this evening after a battling 1-1 draw. With McMillan and McCulloch having departed for Wigan and Benito Kemble injured, Billy Davies was forced to once again play Derek Townsley at sweeper, while Leitch and Ramsay returned to the midfield and John Spencer returned up front alongside Derek Adams. In fact, Leitch and Spencer were struggling through injury and had to pass late fitness tests before taking their place in the starting line up. Right from kick-off you could sense the players were up for the game, and we went on to have the better of the first half. With a bit of luck we could have been ahead at the interval, as both Ramsay and Townsley passed up great opportunities to score. Hibs came into the game more in the second half but some outstanding defending restricted them to very few attempts on Andy Goram's goal. However, it was slightly against the run of play when we took the lead after 81 mins, when Greg Strong superbly controlled the ball and volleyed home from around 12 yards. Alas, we couldn't hold on to the lead and Latapy equalised for Hibs just a minute later, but we held on comfortably for a well earned point. Tonight's performance was in stark contrast to recent weeks, with the midfield particularly outstanding as they pressed and closed the Hibs players down every time they had the ball. I also take back everything I've ever said about Derek Townsley - the big fella was outstanding at the back and was my MOTM by a mile, even though Sky awarded it to Greg Strong.
Speaking after the game, Billy Davies paid tribute to his young
players:
"There's one or two of them who maybe shouldn't be coming
in at this stage, but I'm very proud of them. They worked very hard and showed
that they can compete at this level. It was a fantastic performance from
some of the young lads - there were one or two very nervous before the game as
you can imagine. But we're not going to get carried away, we're going to
settle them down and keep working away and we'll do that over the next couple of
weeks. All in all we've got to be very happy. We've now got 14 days to
prepare for the Rangers match and it gives us time now to go and get Pat Nevin
fit."
Greg Strong admitted he was happy to take a draw:
"I think having got in front so late on you'd think we
could have held on. But we would have been happy to take a point before the game
so I think we've got to be happy with that. It's always said you're at
your weakest when you've scored a goal and it just proved it today - a lack of
concentration and there was a goal. But not to worry, we're happy with a
draw. I think all the young lads have done themselves proud, they can all
walk away and be happy with what they've done today. We've just got to get
on with the job we've got and hopefully keep grinding out results like
that. We've still got a lot to play for, this season's not dead by a long
way,"
An interesting article on John Boyle appears in today's Sunday Herald. The full version is available here, but the main points are as follows:
John Boyle has received 150 from supporters recently, of which only two did not back his cost-cutting stance.
He believes no other club outwith the Old Firm would have knocked back the Wigan offers.
It is believed that Billy Davies will be given only £400,000 of the money from Wigan to rebuild the side before the start of next season.
Davies has already contacted agents, imploring them to inform him of available players.
A bid was made last week to sign the Republic of Ireland under-21 defender Jason Gavin on a three-month loan, but the deal collapsed when Middlesbrough, his club, suffered injury and suspension problems.
Davies will attempt to make some signings before the Rangers game on March 17th.
Billy Davies goes on to say:
"I'm not prepared to walk away. For me, before I
came into the management side of things, I knew of the pitfalls and the hurdles
that are there for you. But this is different, this is certainly a difficult
situation. But I have no intentions of walking away or giving up the
fight. It's very difficult, there's no doubt about it. It's an enormous
task that's ahead of us. I'm a coach, not a finance man, and I try to get
the players to play on a Saturday, to get the ones we have available to go out
and put on a good performance that will win matches. In an ideal world
we'd like to sit here and think about having £10m to bring in top quality
players and so on, but that's not the case. What can you do. As I said
before I am not a finance man, I'm a coach. Hopefully, we can get younger
guys introduced, carry them through a few games and get them confident and
relaxed."
Stevie McMillan, Lee McCulloch and Ged Brannan all played for the entire 90 mins of Wigan's 0-0 draw at home to Swindon Town yesterday. The result is a blow to Wigan's promotion hopes, although they remain on course for a play-off spot.
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