8pm

Today's result: Motherwell 2, Hibernian 1.

We inflicted Hibs' first league defeat of the season in an entertaining match at Fir Park this afternoon.  

After a fairly tame start, the match burst into life after 20 mins when Hibs winger Morais was shown a straight red card for a two-footed lunge at Paterson. Although it was a bad challenge, I was certain that the ref would only book the player and was as surprised as anyone when the red card was produced.  Still, perhaps he tried to even things up shortly afterwards when he awarded Hibs what appeared to be a rather soft penalty.  Fletcher had seemingly over-ran the ball when he went down under the challenge of Graeme Smith, although any contact appeared minimal.  In any event, Fletcher beat Smith from the spot to put Hibs ahead.  Their lead was short lived however, with Ross McCormack equalising for Motherwell after 35 mins with a stunning strike that crashed in off the bar.  And just a couple of minutes later it was 2-1 Motherwell when McCormack grabbed his second with a brilliant free-kick from the edge of the box.

Motherwell began to make their one-man advantage count in the second half as they dominated possession for long spells.  However the killer second goal would not come, despite numerous clear cut opportunities being created, and we were left sweating near the end as Hibs twice rattled the woodwork in the closing minutes.  Fortunately, we held on for a fully deserved three points.

Team (4-3-3): Graeme Smith, Quinn, Craigan, Reynolds, Paterson, Hughes (O'Donnell 90), Lasley, McGarry, McCormack (Grabban 90), Porter, Clarkson. 
Subs not used: Meldrum, Mensing, Fitzpatrick, Kinniburgh, Jamie Murphy.

Motherwell scorer: McCormack (35, 37).

Booked: Hughes.

Attendance: 7071.

Mark McGhee reckons that following today's performance, we can trouble both halves of the Old Firm in the next couple of weeks:
"With the team we have and that little bit of help on the bench, we have a chance of beating anybody in this league given the way we're playing.  We could beat anyone on a good day - maybe even the Old Firm, who knows?  It's a big ask to keep that going until the end of the season, but as long as that team's playing, we have a chance of winning games.  Rangers had a great result today and they've got a massive game in midweek against Barcelona and a difficult game against thriving Dundee United next Sunday, so we're hoping that their programme will help us as much as our own players in the cup tie."

The 'Well boss insists the best is yet to come from two-goal hero Ross McCormack: 
"You saw a top performance from Ross today and his general play was good, but he could still play better.  His goals certainly were top quality - his first certainly was fantastic and he's been practising free-kicks during the week which paid off for him with the second.  They were two great goals and we fought back well; we lost [the first] goal in the cup tie as well, so maybe that helped as the players knew they'd come back from that at Easter Road as well.  I felt we might get another goal but there was always a risk that we lost two points as long as it was 2-1, as they hit the bar near the end."

McGhee also admitted that the red card shown to Hibernian's Filipe Morais for a two-footed challenge was harsh:
"The lad seemed to have a foot on the ground so in that case the referee can feel it's a robust tackle and is entitled to book him, but it was a hard thing to send him off."

We've currently got Finnish goalkeeper Henri Sillanpaa on trial at Fir Park.  The 28-year-old is poised to leave VPS Vaasa after seven years with the Finnish club, and Mark McGhee is keen to add extra goalkeeping cover:
"I'm not in any panic about this situation. We want to make sure he is the right one.  Colin Meldrum, our goalkeeping coach, brought him in through a contact and, so far apparently, he's shaped up.   We will keep looking and keep bringing players in on trial and keep watching people until we get somebody that we like and that we can afford.   We are aware they want to keep him, but the lad is only here because he wants to leave.   We have now seen enough to like what we see and we will watch him playing and we will see what we do from there." 

Irish forward Trevor Molloy has left the club "by mutual consent" after being told he did not feature in Mark McGhee's plans.  Maurice Malpas always did know a good player when he saw one... 

19-year-old defender David Nixon has joined First Division side Queen of the South on loan until January.

The reserves came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with their Rangers counterparts at Broadwood in midweek, thanks to goals from Mark Archdeacon and Simon Mensing.

Team: Meldrum, Connolly, Danny Murphy, Kinniburgh, McLean, Fitzpatrick, Darren Smith, Mensing, Jamie Murphy, Archdeacon, Grabban.
Subs Not Used: Coutts, Murray, Maguire, Forbes, Gupwell.

Decent article from The Scotsman on the ex 'Well players in the Scotland international setup.

Tickets are now on sale for the CIS Cup Quarter Final against Rangers on Halloween.  Motherwell fans have been allocated the Davie Cooper Stand for this game.