MOTHERWELL FC: WE'LL BE FINE IN THE SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP

We'll be fine in the Scottish Premiership.

The most positive of a handful of plus points taken from last night's defeat to FC Kuban Krasnodar, is the fact that despite lacking width and and pace, Stuart McCall's side should have no problem in gaining a top six finish this season.

The result was disappointing, made more so by the first half performance that by all accounts matched the Russians, with a 0-0 score line at the midway point just about deserved. However, as soon as they kicked off the second half, the visitors upped their rate of play to a level that the Steelmen couldn't.

Ivelin Popov's first goal was the definition of clinicism. The one time that FC Kuban had managed to get in behind and deliver a quality cross, the ball ended up in the net via the toe of their top scorer from last season. Preventable? Yes, but the signs of the quality in the Russian side had been shown in first half flashes, before Ibrahima Balde's ball in to the corridor of uncertainty created a slight air of inevitability.

Having cracked the bar from distance in the first half, Balde looked the standout for the away side, and he was to be involved in the move that not only undone The Steelmen's attempted resurgence, but also brought back horrible memories of last year's Euro campaign.

A great bit of play between Vigurs and McFadden resulted in a corner, when Faddy's strike from the edge of the box was deflected wide. The ball was cleared, Stevie Hammell misplaced his ball back in and almost immediately, 7000 fans came down with the worst collective case of Deja Vu in sports history.

Balde broke at speed up the right hand side, and with only one defender back to prevent three attackers getting on the end of the pass, Popov popped up to secure his brace from 12 yards and almost certainly fired the Kubantsy in to the Europa League play off round.

Frustratingly, there was a feeling that the side that earned the Europa League berth last term could have possibly garnered a better result. There's no doubt the pace and width of last year's side would have caused their left and right backs issues and the tenacity and bite of certain players would have had the fans on their feet more often. That was not the case though, and with the competitive season underway, thoughts of past successes need to be put to the side for now.

With the tie at 0-2, McCall's side have the hardest of tasks to progress in Europe. For the first 50 minutes, despite a couple of shakes, The Well were a match for the side that has talent on  27 times their wage bill. A side that could afford to have Djibril Cisse on the bench for the biggest game in their 85 year history shows that despite being an "unknown" side, they were full of quality.

Quality that, barring one side in the Scottish Premiership, The Well are unlikely to face domestically this season. It's disheartening to be going in to the second leg two away goals behind, but come Sunday, MFC have a great chance to recover and set an early marker on the all new Scottish Premiership.

And there is no reason they shouldn't.  

With the Pre season games giving everyone a decent run out, the team that started last night was about as strong as McCall and Black could have made it. The surprise inclusion of Lee Hollis paid off, as the rarely used keeper made two great saves from Popov and Cisse in the second half to keep the scoreline down. With An international goalie in Gunnar Nielesen his competition this season, it seems the number one jersey is Hollis' to throw away as the season begins.

The back four were for the most part solid with Shaun Hutchinson a stand out yet again. With the imposing Balde the focus of their long ball play, Hutchinson stood tall and battled for every ball in the air with the massive striker. Having learned his trade from Stephen Craigan, having Stephen McManus beside him this season can only see him get better.

McManus himself had a great game in terms of positioning, tackling and distribution, everything you would expect from a seasoned European performer. Ramsden seems to be settled in the right back position and Steven Hammell, minus the blip for the second goal, was Steven Hammell.

It is in the middle of the park that the biggest difference between last term and this term is going to be seen. With only Zaine Francis- Angol offering any width, the majority of the Well play came through the middle, with the County boys, Lawson and Vigurs charged with playing piercing and penetrative balls forward. Lawson didn't see much of the ball in the early exchanges, but as the game progressed, his passing got sharper and more adventurous.

Vigurs, who also started off fairly quiet, was keen to test Belemov in the Kuban goal at any chance and after finding his range, had a good few efforts on goal, that had the keeper scrambling. His link up play with McFadden, who was frustrated at every turn, was a joy to watch at times, and in the SPFL, should create some great moments in the coming season.

Keith Lasley put in a great shift in the middle, bombing forward at times and at one point found himself at the bye-line crossing for Sutton. It was a big night for the skipper and the occasion didn't get to him as he tussled with Kabore and Tsorayev in the middle of the park. With John Sutton on his own up front, the Kuban defence did a good job on huckling him for the 90 minutes, but the complexion of the game could have changed at the death, had his header from ZFA's left wing cross been a few millimetres closer to goal.

As his powerful effort spun off his forehead, it looked destined to be the smallest of life lines going in to the second leg until it cracked the post and bounced away to safety, The European goal remaining elusive for McCall's side.

The despondency of the result and the way the second goal had been lost was evident at the final whistle from fans ad players alike, but with Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday lunchtime to come, the players need to react quickly and get their heads around putting on a display worth the first points of the SPFL season. Hibs themselves will still be hurting from their Europa exit last week, and will be hungry to begin getting over their Malmo mauling.

With every other side playing before The Well and the Hibees, Stuart McCall will get a good view of how the rival clubs will be set out this season. On last night's showing, he has built a very capable side, that once it gels more will keep The Well in the top six and challenge for Europe once more.

MOTHERWELL FC: IT'S BEEN A WHILE...

Having done a power of writing for various outlets over the last month or so, I have ended up neglecting the place where it all began, my blog. Today, seems about the right time to get back in to the blogosphere and get my own thoughts and opinions across on a few things that my other work doesn't allow or give me opportunity to.

Having split myself between my media role at Motherwell FC and my STV blog/column on the Elite Ice Hockey League, I have been slowly building and building a firm body of work to project me to where I want to be. There's nothing wrong with being a Business to Business phone salesman, but writing and commentating and commenting on sports is what I want to do, and by and large, I am doing the right things to get me there.

It's just taking ages.

The experience that I am gaining from it is immense though. While not claiming to be bezzie mates with any of the players at MFC, the majority of the first team are aware of who I am and what I do, and the occasional head nod or "alright" from them in passing still has me feeling like a fan. Even though my current Well heroes are mainly younger than me, I still feel like 10 year old me, the wee boy that would clamber to the front of the East Stand to get Dougie Arnott's autograph on my programme or show Stevie Woods the unflattering caricature I had drawn of him waving to the crowd, while the ball whistles past him.

From a "professional" point of view, writing match reports, programme reports, player profiles etc is really bringing on my writing to where I want it to be. I've always been good with words (if not typing) and while some things can seem somewhat repetitive (there's only so many words you can use for "kick" without using the actual word "kick" in a sentence describing a shot at goal), my turn of phrase is getting better and hopefully that comes across in the reports that go up after games and in to the programme.

Commentary is not something I'd really given much thought to when I came on board at MFC. It was something I was always willing to do, but due to a slight speech impediment (can't roll my Rs) wasn't sure I'd be able to pull it off to great effect. When the opportunity arose in January, in a 1-0 defeat to Inverness, I grabbed it with both hands, despite my Jamie Oliver tongue, and have not looked back since. I absolutely love doing it.

I often feel like the boy in Father Ted that presents the Euro Song show, an alcoholic, stuttering, slavering wreck until the curtain goes up and then he is the consummate professional. As soon as Graham "The Mouth of Motherwell" Barnstaple, my co-commentator, puts us on air, I seem to change from my usual low Lanarkian-Weegie drawl, to a slightly clearer sounding, more annunciated Lanarkian-Weegie timbre. Hopefully the MFCTV subscribers are becoming accustomed to my voice and mannerisms when they tune in, as I appreciate, Graham and I can be somewhat of an acquired taste.

(I've also yet to get my own Broadcast Pseudonym, "The Mouth" fit's Graham well, not just from his ranty ways, but now that he is Chairman of the Well Society, his words come with some sort of authority I guess.)

We have built up a great camaraderie on air, which I believe helps the flow of the broadcast, and is helping me to find my broadcast voice in this capacity. having dabbled in podcasting last season, my main worry was that I wasn't speaking clearly enough to really embark upon such a road, but with almost a year of doing MFCTV comms, it's is a great string to add to my bow.

This weekend sees the MFCTV team travel to Inverness to broadcast from the Tulloch Stadium, for a game that may be quite a toughy for The Well. With ICT in fine form, and the Steelmen somewhat struggling, I very much doubt there will be a repeat of the 4-1 win over the Caley Jags that I missed while in Malta. Likewise, I am not so confident in a repeat of our jaunt up the A9 last season, where we stole a win from El Tel's side.

Had I been on comms for that game, I very much doubt I'd have been asked back. Having ventured up to Inverness with my mates on the Friday, to say i was fragile on the Saturday was an understatement. Being far from a hardened drinker, a night of Jaeger-Bombs and JD and Cokes, were probably correctly followed up by just having to do a match report and Twitter updates on the game.

It meant i didn't have to talk to anyone with the risk of vomiting on them, and it meant I could keep my emotions in check, reducing movement and the risk of emptying at the other end. As the game played out, with Keith Lasley scoring from the Moray Firth and Tom Hateley lashing in a late free kick for the winner, I'm pretty sure I'd have ruined the Glensound Radio Unit, as I exclaimed that we'd won.

Perhaps not the most professional moment of my sports writing to date, but an experience nonetheless. The same pilgrimage is being made this weekend and I am stating now, that i will not be in a similar state come kick off on Sunday....

It's an important game for The Well, as the pressure begins to mount after some not so great results. It can be argued that we are going through an unlucky spell, what with the Hibs debacle, losing to a late goal versus Dundee United and only netting one in 18 attempts against Dundee last time out. The luck has got to change at some point. Some have said that we are due to give a team a roasting, but having already beaten the form team in the SPL 4-1 at Fir Park, I doubt a hiding will be delivered this weekend. I'd be happy with a draw.

The one thing that I would ask for is a goal, any kind of goal, from Henrik Ojamaa. He's cutting about in games just now like the "Little Engine That Could" bursting his Estonian arse for the side to create, but he just can't find the net himself. It has been over twenty games since we last saw the pistols, and I for one would love to be doing my best Mick Foley impression on Sunday. It was on the tip of my tongue at St Johnstone and again when he hit the post and bar against United, and I pray that I can shoot the soundbite out properly this weekend.

The players have received a fair bit of stick on forums and whatnot throughout this poor spell and I think that is indicative of the situation that we have found ourselves in. Graham mentions it most weeks to me that this generation of Well fans are spoiled, as by and large, barring the administration times, things have been comparably rosy. Regular top six finishes, European jaunts, two Cup Finals (albeit disappointing ones) in the last few years; all a far cry from relegation and bottom of the table battles.

Yes, this season hasn't seen us hit the heady heights of last, and yes we haven't really found replacements for Craigan and Jennings, and it could be argued that certain substitutions have been incorrect or ill timed, but we will come out the end of this. I don't believe at this moment in time that we will be involved in a relegation battle, just as I don't believe that Hibernian and Aberdeen will be able to keep up their good form for the rest of the season. Both of those sides are performing where they "should be" for once, and fair play to them for it. But in my view, I don't think it can last. As the first round of SPL games have been and gone, it shows that any team is capable of taking points off any other this season, in what has been a very open and coupon busting term so far.

You can look at recent results with ifs and buts, but the same conclusion can be made that things just aren't going Well's way at this time, but I don't think it's through lack of effort on the team's part. this is no happy clappy statement, just calling it how I see it.

So for this weekend, get behind The Well in the Highlands so that the journey back down the A9 isn't as grim as what it's forecast to be.

That's probably enough scattergun writing for the time being, cheers for reading.

KJ

Up The Well!

MOTHERWELL FC: ENTERTAINMENT IS FOUND IN THE LACK OF DEFENSIVE ABILITY

As Josh Magennis got the final touch on Andy Considine's blooter in to the ground, deep in to injury time at Pittodrie on Sunday, 3 pairs of hands were thrown headwards in disbelief. Those hands had been clenched in to jubilant fists only 10 minutes earlier as Nicky Law looked to have secured a well earned win for The Steelmen, which would propel Stuart McCall's side three points clear of Hibs and four ahead of Celtic, ahead of next Saturday's match versus the current Champions.

"Motherwell have snatched a third to take all three points back to Lanarkshire!" I boomed down the MFCTV mic as Law and co celebrated in front of a dissenting home crowd, some of whom had fixed their gaze on Graham, Flow and I in the gantry. Many in front of us began to leave, as we gave it big licks for two minutes, exclaiming it was no less than we deserved.

Then Niall McGinn scored from a free header, and that cockiness, smugness and stupidity that I was exuding took a hefty knock. Us three, plus the hearty band of travelling fans who had trekked up to the Granite City had gone from confident winners, to the squeakiest of squeaky bummed panic merchants in 120 seconds.

It was inevitable that when Jamie Langfield lofted his free kick towards the Well box that something bad was going to go down, and for the second time this season, a late late leveller has left Motherwell feeling that they have lost all three points when it has really been two.

I don't buy in to the "play Motherwell to break a duck/lift a curse/turn your season around" patter anymore, but it did have some resonance yesterday, particularly given the Dons as the opposition. Just shy of 13 years ago, Ebbe Skovdhal's dismal Dons travelled to Fir Park on a Wednesday night, having failed to win any of their SPL games ahead of the clash. Not only did they get the win that night, but Robbie Winters claimed a hat trick, as did Well's John Spencer. 

The irony of such a high scoring game was that the two goalies that night, Goram and Leighton, were two of the modern great at International level, meaning that the defending must have been very suspect indeed.

As it was yesterday. With the Aberdeen fans been bereft of net bulging action at home this season, it was a stick on that this game would follow suit, but thanks to some woeful marking and positioning, they were treated to a veritable goal fest.Each of the six goals scored were highly preventable, with the defending for the three Well goals by The Dons' defence probably the worse.

Three set pieces gifted Motherwell three goals, which Craig Brown was quick to lament after the game. Having kept out all visitors in recent weeks he was dismayed at the lack of prevention used by his experienced defence. Considine, Reynolds and Anderson have done and should have done much better when Higdon poked home, when Hutchinson got his sizeable dome to Hateley's corner and Law bundled the third in after Cummins and Murphy tried to force the ball past Langfield.

Not that I am complaining. I was loving the ineptitude of their backline. Not so much ours though.

Motherwell were the better team throughout, and could have been forgiven for switching off to allow Gavin Rae to score from Hayes' cross so early on, had they held out for the 3-1 win. The quality of Fraser's cross for the second can't be argued, but with Hutchinson getting caught under the ball, similar to Cummins last week against Dundee, it gave McGinn the easiest of headers to place in to the net.

If only the defence could have clenched themselves as tight as the gluteals of every Motherwell fan going in to injury time, then this blog may have been a celebration of staying top of the league, regardless of the outcome of the game against Celtic on Saturday. But that's fitba. You win some, you lose some, you draw some from the jaws of victory in a game you deserve to have won. It happens.

With Ibrox to come on Wednesday, a similarly attack minded performance will go a long way to getting to the next round of the League Cup. I'm not going to go in to all the permutations of how and why we can beat this incarnation of rangers, despite us having not won their this decade, nay, this century. By and large we have ground out results this season and been deserving of a win in others, and but for misfortune, we could have held on for just a few seconds more against Aberdeen and St Mirren to be more than one point ahead at the top of the SPL.

Perhaps on Wednesday, it's our time to lift a hoodoo.

Up The Well!

MOTHERWELL FC: DOING THE HIGGY WHEN WE'RE TOP OF THE LEAGUE

Six games. Three draws, three wins, out of Europe, but Top of the SPL. Not too much to grumble about so far in this season where every team is going to suffer, where Armageddon is imminent and Scottish Football is set to implode on itself without the blue side of Glasgow turning up once or twice to bouncy bouncy their money in to our gate receipts.

 

It may still be early on in the season, but the hand wringing, wailing and gnashing of teeth which darkened the summer as the SFA and SPL failed to really get to grips with the Ibrox saga, has yet to be proved. Sure financially, there are a number of clubs who will miss the money that having both sides of the Old Firm in the league would bring, and there may still be cause for worry of administration, liquidation or whatever other financial meltdowns are abound, but for now, the SPL is proving to be as exciting and as closely matched as it has been for some time.

 

As  a Well fan, it will never not be exciting being at the top of the league, and having done so amidst a grueling, if somewhat underwhelming, Euro adventure, makes it more impressive. Playing 8 games in the first 4-5 weeks of the season, jaunting from Dingwall to Athens to Kilmarnock to Valencia, with some stops at home between, no doubt took it's toll on some (if not all) of the players. Those like Randolph, Ojamaa and Francis-Angol have also clocked up a power of air miles in this time, representing their nations in International battle.

 

To those who have given their all over the last two month's there can be no greater credit than sitting atop the domestic division, looking down on the chasing pack. But it has not been pretty getting there. Ross County away looked to be two points dropped in a lacklustre display, until it became evident that Derek Adams men would cause frustration to every team they came up against so far.

 

Bob McHugh's leveller against St Johnstone earned a hard fought point off the back of the trip to Greece, before the 2-1 win over Killie showed signs of some great counter attacking football.The home draw with St Mirren was a sickener having held on for so long to a 2nd minute lead, only to chuck it in injury time having gone a man down, before Higgy struck his magnificent treble against Inverness. Despite the emphatic win, the game was much closer than intimated, a common occurrence with ICT last season.

 

Saturday's win was a proper smash and grab job, at times neither side seemed interested in keeping possession, but when the game and The Well needed a spark, they got it when Henrik Ojamaa bowled in to the fray. It's been far too long since we've seen the pistols bang banging, he didn't even get them out when he scored a late double against St Johnstone at the end of last season, but his work rate has set up Higgy for vital goals in the last two games when he has come on as a sub. It would seem that there's nothing currently better than, as the fans chanted, "Doing The Higgy When We're Top Of The League".

 

With the transfer window now closed, it was a bit of a shock that nobody left, particularly those in the final year of their contract. The only standout amongst those in the early stages of the season has been Randolph, arguably our most bankable asset. Murphy and Humphrey have underperformed so far, and Shaun Hutchinson showed his rawness probably at the most inopportune time with two red cards in two games, possibly dulling down interest in the lad. Offers for he and Nicky Law were knocked back as being derisory, but performances throughout the team have perhaps not shown the true value that these players are worth, hence they are still at Fir Park.

 

I quipped after the Dundee game that it's a sign of a great team when they can win ugly, and while that was rather tongue in cheek, abit of it stands true. While we haven't played like the Scottish Barcelona of late, we've ground out results and made the most of the start to the season. Others have too. Dundee's win over Hearts was their first of the season, thanks to their first goal of the term, a penalty, which they defended for the rest for the game. Hibs have made a decent start with Leigh Griffith's earning plaudits for seemingly reigning himself in a bit. Dundee United haven't hit the heights expected of them as yet while St Mirren sit third. With Celtic minds on European glory, their complacency resulted in a first SPL win of the season for St Johnstone.

 

While the title will no doubt end up back at Celtic Park once they are dumped out of the UCL, it's up to the other teams in the league to battle away at the top end. The number of draws and coupon buster results that have happened over the last few weeks has shown that it will be a tight league this year, but with the number of draws on show, a sequence of wins for one or two teams could see an early breakaway emerge. Had Hibs not won at the weekend, The Well may well have been four points clear at the top. Alas, it is just the one.

 

With a jaunt up to Aberdeen on Sunday, Stuart McCall's men will know what they need to do to stay top before the visit of Celtic the following week. Having a great record in the SPL against Aberdeen over the last few years and The Dons seemingly very shot shy at the moment, it's another great chance for three points, however, defensively, they have been pretty good and have conceded about as many as they have scored. It may be the case that a ground out win will be required yet again, to stay at the summit.

 

Up The Well!

MOTHERWELL FC: TUESDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Even on the afternoon after the night before, it still seems absurd, mental and ri-goddamn-diculous, that Motherwell FC are competing in the UEFA Champion's League. The word competing has been used correctly here, as while 0-2 down after the first leg, The Steelmen played to the best of their abilities, and no one in Claret and Amber can fault anyone who contributed to a cracking Champion's league debut. The result does however mean that we are left with an Acropolis sized trial to overcome. Despite putting in an Herculean effort against the giants of Greek football, Panathinaikos, Stuart McCall's first foray in to UEFA's premier club competition ended in defeat.

To be fair, it wasn't an unexpected shoreline, but what the performance roused, was a sense of belief that the men in Claret and Amber were capable of causing an upset. The two goals conceded were highly preventable, but on another night, Chris Humphrey's 20 yarder dips a few inches lower and crashes in off the underside of the bar; Michael Higdon gets a bit more direction on his header and plonks the ball behind the goalie; Henrik Ojamaa loses his gifted but selfish nuance, just once, and plays in Jamie Murphy to further his tally as the club's all time top European goal scorer.

However, on this night, under the dull Lanarkshire floodlit sky, those chances didn't find a way past a solid Pana back line. Velasquez and Boumsong took most things in their stride, and with the pace at which Sissoko, Lazaros and Toche could break, those missed opportunities transitioned from buoying the crowd, to frustrating them in equal measure as the game went on. Having far more posession and making far more chances than most home fans would have expected, swelled the noisy crowd in to belief that something could happen, but, alas, it was not to be. To go to Athens and overcome that two goal deficit, would go down in the annuls of MFC history as one of the greatest results in the Club's history.

While only Nostradamus would be able to predict such a ludicrous turn around, it is important that the players go to the the home of the Parthenon with the belief that they can do it. Otherwise, the plucky and lucky bunch of revellers making the pilgrimage will be nursing their Ouzo induced headaches with what might have been. Unfortunately funds and other commitments will not allow me to make the trip, but having had the pleasure of commentating for MFCTV for last night's game and getting one of the best seats in the house to do it form, has meant that my Champion's League experience was fantastic. (Although, there is a 99.9% chance that the commentary didn't actually go out to anyone...)

It was one of the busiest Media boxes I've seen at Fir Park for quite some time, and huddled up right next to my self and Graham "The Mouth of Motherwell" Barnstaple, were our Greek counterparts. After much faffing about trying to find a power supply, our plate smashing pals finally got settled, and got their own broadcast underway. They had screeds and screeds of what looked like the matrix on their computers, which they claimed was their own alphabet, although, bizarrely, there seems to be no Greek translation or spelling of "Jennigs" or "Craygen".

Despite seeing their team under the cosh for spells in the game, they weren't very loud or animated at either of the goals. Certainly nowhere near as jubilant as Graham and I would have been had The well managed to find the back of the net. Come the end of the game, they praised the skill, but not the style of Sissoko, and Velasquez powerful performance at the back, while singling out Law and Ramsden as the star men for the home side. With the latter looking fairly composed in his first competitive outing, Lawsy stole the show with his directness and eagerness to get forward and create. If he can do the same at the Olympic Stadium next week, he could be the catalyst for one of the all time great European comebacks.

Hopefully, I'll have trawled the web or found a pub with Al-Jazeera, to find a stream of next weeks match, which comes after a lengthy trip to Dingwall for the start of this season's SPL campaign. Ross County may be celebrating raising the title flag, but by no means will they be in party mode as they look to add to their highland history. McCall may opt to mix things about to rest players ahead of Athens, if he can afford that luxury. Regardless of the outcome of the trip north, the eyes of us all will be firmly on the return leg next week, with hope spurring everyone on. While dropping in to the Europa League is not the worst consequence of losing the current tie, realizing the dream of staying in the Champion's League that little bit longer, would taste that little bit sweeter.

Up The Well

MOTHEWELL FC: NEARLY THERE...

It's the morning after the night before and the morning of the night to come. Last night, a few hundred Well fans and a choice select of the Motherwell media team screamed with joy twice in absolute joy; once when Michael Higdon reacted quickest to Jamie McDonald spilling Jamie Murphy's dipping strike, and once again, when Alan Winter blew for Full Time.

 While it was Taps Aff in the away end, the restrictions of a headset and mic prevented me from partaking in that type of celebration. Instead, I joyously gushed about what I had just witnessed to the handful of listeners on MFCTV and my commentary colleague Graham "Mouth of Motherwell" Barnstaple. The much maligned Michael was now the messiah, having delivered the goal which sees Motherwell Football Club teetering on the edge of the unknown and unthinkable Champion's League qualifiers.

 A Dundee United win at Ibrox tonight, will pull us back form the edge slightly, while a home win will tip us right in to the gaping jaws of elite European football. It's slightly ironic that the demise of RFC has put us in this coveted position, and we are now depending on them to not lose in order to secure this mystical berth, ahead of our own trip to Govan at the weekend. But thoughts of tonight and Saturday's upcoming games were put to the side for the immediate aftermath of what could have been a tetchy Tuesday at Tynecastle.

 With Motherwell, having our destiny in the palm of our own hands finds us often spilling what we are carrying at the crucial moment. And at times last night, before Higgy's goal, it looked like Gorgie could be the scene of an uncomfortable drop, as Hearts came out of the traps and looked mouch more composed on their home turf. As has been the norm of late, the midfield and defence restricted our opponents to pot shots form distance, which rarely troubled Randolph in the middle of our goal.

 When Taouil latched on to the rebound from Templeton's blocked effort, a sharp intake of breath travelled out to the listeners of MFCTV form both myself and Graham, but we had need not worry ourselves. On a nervous night, the breaks stayed in favour of those in Claret and Amber, and it was a breakaway of great quality which gave us the winner. Jennings, who has been understated all season in the role he carries out manfully and to the hilt, won a hard, typifying challenge in the middle of the park to win posession, and from that challenge, the ball was worked to Murphy on the left.

 As Murph ghosted in from the wing, his shot looked from the gantry, like it would be an easy take for McDonald. The bounce of the ball in front of the Jambo's goalie was enough to panic him in to a parry and to much Maroon dismay, The Don stroked home. As Graham and I lost our professional composure amidst the gathered media and Hearts fans around us, the travelling faithful's noise was pitched even louder. Like a locomotive, they had used the team's season of performances to stoke their vocals and noise up in the corner, carrying the side to the heights they have hit. Higdon's goal was the proverbial woot woot of the metaphorical vessel, hurtling towards lands unknown.

 Hearts looked stunned and try as they might they could not break down the well rearguard. Hutchinson in particular was a behemoth at the back, while Clancy looked as composed and assured as he has been all season. Regardless of what was thrown at Motherwell, they hung on until the final toot of Winter's whistle, at which point the joy and emotion in the fans spilled to the players. To a man, they mobbed Higdon as the SKY cameras focussed on the former St Mirren man. I doubt 12 months ago, the big Scouser could have envisaged out scoring himself and setting Motherwell up for a crack att the Champion's League. But he has.

 It's testament to his ethic and effort that he is now a Fir Park hero. Eyebrows were raised at his signing, and while taking some time to find the net for the Well, he became the punching bag for many unpleased with certain results. Whether his celebration at Tannadice was intended as a "getitupye" to the Well fans or not, "The Higgy" may now be seen as as much of an iconic 'Well gesture as Faddy's streak and rat tail, Colin O'Neill's Hugo Sanchez and Sieb swinging on the bar. 400 arms bent at the elbows in an upward motion, as Higdon was led to the SKY studio, prove that.

 That motion of a fist being moved upward, against the oppression of whatever you want to fight is indicative of Motherwell punching above their weight. Something we have said for so long, when our league position or cup runs have belied our own thoughts and beliefs about our club. A foray in to Europe will definitely be "above our weight", but we shouldn't be looking to punch at it; merely we should enjoy it. The players have worked so so hard this season to get us there, and it has been a great season to be involved in with what I have done at the club.

 If Rangers do the job tonight, then that feeling of a job well done by all in Claret and Amber will carry in to our next 2 games, and while we'd like to keep the good run going, we can't be too harsh on McCall's men if we have a little dip, knowing fine well what awaits us. (Although, to be fair, from a personal level, commentating on Well's first win at Ibrox in 15 years would be pretty damn special...) For those that travelled through to Tynecastle, for those of a Claret and Amber persuasion who watched on SKY, for those who listened to Graham and I nervously stumble through commentary, last night was one of those historic nights in motherwell folklore.

While not having the thrills of a Cup Final, or the drama of a 6-6 game with a wonder strike in the last minute to level, it had as much emotion and heart as any fixture as important to the club would conjure up. All eyes are on Ibrox tonight, but you can't help but feel that the 1st of May 2012 will be remembered as the night that Motherwell FC qualified for the Champion's League.

 Up The Well!!

KJ WellCast 2604

KJ WellCast 2604