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Motherwell Football Club is saddened to learn of the death of former defender Peter Millar.

Peter was a local lad, hailing from Wishaw, and was a Motherwell fan in his youth who eventually lined up for his boyhood heroes.

He started his senior career with Arbroath before making a £12,000 move to Dunfermline.

He was a regular for the East End Park side and even managed to score from the spot for the Pars at Fir Park in 4-1 win during season 1971/72. This must have been enough to impress the then Motherwell boss Bobby Howitt, who snapped him up in the summer of 1972.

It was thought he could add depth to playing squad, capable as he was of playing in both a defensive role as well as in midfield. In time he went on to establish himself in the starting eleven as a tough tackling midfielder alongside guys like Stewart McLaren, Willie Watson and Gregor Stevens.

This was a quartet who had a reputation, as the old saying goes, for “kicking their granny” to get to the ball. It was this tough tackling that built a platform for the ball players like Vic Davidson and Peter Marinello.

Millar was the man that the managers he played under, Howitt, Ian St. John and Willie McLean, would ask to stop the opposition’s best player from performing, including the likes of Kenny Dalglish at Celtic who suffered many a bruising encounter with the physical Millar.

He played a major role in the 1970s side as helped them qualify for the first ever season of the Premier League and reached two Scottish Cup Semi Finals. It was a side that promised so much but, unfortunately, in the end never actually delivered a big prize. Sadly the two semi-finals, against Rangers and Airdrie, ended in controversial defeats that are still talked about to this day.

His performances in Claret and Amber were rewarded with one appearance for his country, at Scottish League level in 1974, when he lined up against the English Football League. Sadly the result was a five-nil defeat for the Scots, with Denis Tueart, Trevor Brooking, Stan Bowles and Colin Bell scoring for England.

Teammate Peter Marinello also had memories of his teammate, which he detailed in his autobiography: “Peter ‘Doomie’ Millar was a good strong player but a born pessimist. He would have been brilliant in Dads Army as Private Fraser, the character who rushed around proclaiming, ‘Doomed, we’re all doomed.’”

With the club lurching towards relegation under the leadership of Ally McLeod at the end of the 1978/79 season, Millar was allowed to move on and join newly promoted Dundee with teammate Stewart McLaren. He played 238 games at Fir Park, scoring 22 goals.

He also had a short spell in the United States before returning to Scotland to take up a career in the Civil Service. He was also involved in the clubs’ Youth Development programme for a spell, working as a coach alongside current Academy Director Gordon Young.

A club spokesperson said: “Everyone at Motherwell FC is deeply saddened to learn of Peter’s death. He had been struggling with illness of late but his passing has still come as a bit of a shock to the system, being just 62.

“For ‘Well fans of a certain vintage, Peter played a big part in what is considered an exciting and entertaining period for the football club during the 1970s.

“He was renowned for being a committed, hard-working, tough-tackling defender who could also play football.

“He also played a part with the club after his retirement from the game; working alongside current Academy Director Gordon Young with the clubs’ pro-youths, directly coaching players like Mark Reynolds during his spell.

“He will be sadly missed by all and the deepest condolences of everyone at Fir Park are with his wife Jean, his children Nicola, Barry and Peter and the rest of his family and friends.”

Words: Graham Barnstaple

Motherwell FC are today delighted to confirm former Ross County midfielder Iain Vigurs has signed a two-year deal at Fir Park.

Vigurs, along with Paul Lawson, was a standout for the Dingwall club last season as they recorded a top-six finish in their first year in the top flight.

The 25-year old started his professional career with Elgin before moving to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2006. He was with Caley for three years before moving across the Kessock Bridge to join the Staggies in 2009.

He enjoyed a productive stint at Victoria Park, including a Scottish Cup runners-up medal in 2010 and a SFL1 Championship in 2011/12.

Steelmen boss Stuart McCall has managed to fend off competition for his signature from both north and south of the border as the club continues its summer recruitment plan.

[pullquote]The club has a good fan base and a good manager in Stuart McCall; he was a big pull in me coming here and I am excited about working with him.[/pullquote]

Speaking exclusively to MFC TV, Vigurs said: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining, Motherwell are a massive club who did so well last season.

“The club has a good fan base and a good manager in Stuart McCall; he was a big pull in me coming here and I am excited about working with him.

“Motherwell as a whole has a good reputation, I have heard nothing but good things and I just can’t wait to get the season started now.

Chief Executive Leeann Dempster added: “We are delighted we have managed to recruit both Iain and Paul for next season.

“Obviously this is a summer of change at Fir Park but with that comes a lot of excitement and Iain’s signing typifies the caliber of player we are looking to bring in for our European and domestic campaign.

“In partnership with the manager, we are working through a list of targets and we are hoping to announce more new signings soon.”

-WATCH HIS FIRST INTERVIEW EXCLUSIVELY ON MFC TV–

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The newly formed and recently launched ‘Well Society Business Club is now up and running.

It made its first successful presentation to a number of local businesses here at Fir Park last week.

The aim of the Business Club is to help its members be more successful through regular meetings and using a range of benefits, support the community in a meaningful way and work more closely with the ‘Well Society and Club to achieve their target of fan ownership.

The format of last weeks meeting was based on a number of short interesting presentations by Motherwell FC CEO Leeann Dempster, Charlie Bennet, Head of Community, Paul Burns  Youth Academy  and Graham Barnstaple from the Well Society, as well as Doug Inglis and Douglas Dickie from the Business Committee who explained the benefits of membership.  All of these disciplines depend on each other for their future success.

A copy of the new brochure and an Application Form is available can be easily downloaded.

The next presentation will take place in Fir Park at 7.30pm on Thursday 20 June. Please come along and learn how membership can help your business and the Well Society.

We hope to see you then or at one of our other presentations.  If you are unable to attend please contact us and we will arrange a separate meeting to explain the benefits of membership.

The club is delighted to confirm English Premier League side Newcastle Utd will travel to Fir Park for a pre-season friendly this summer.

The Steelmen will face Alan Pardew’s Europa League Quarter Finalists as ‘Well prepare for the forthcoming European and Scottish Premier League campaign.

The Magpies have a wealth of talent in their ranks, including the likes of Fabricio Coloccini, Yohan Cabaye, Pappis Cissé and Hatem Ben Arfa.

The match will be played on Tuesday 16^th July 2013 – kick-off will be 7pm.

Prices for the match have been confirmed as:

Adults: £15
Juveniles: £5

More pre-season friendly matches will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.

Motherwell FC can confirm Henrik Ojamaa has joined Polish Ekstraklasa Champions Legia Warsaw for an undisclosed fee.

The Estonian sharpshooter joined Motherwell from RoPS in the 2012 January Transfer window and made an immediate impact, scoring five in his first six outings, including a debut stunner against Queen’s Park in the Scottish Cup.

He has gone on to play 64 times in Claret and Amber, scoring 13 goals with 24 assists, helping ‘Well to two successive ‘Best of the Rest’ finishes in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Whilst at Fir Park, he also broke into the Estonian International side and made his senior debut against Croatia back in May 2012. He has since gone on to win ten international caps for the Sinisärgid during his time at ‘Well.

There was significant interest in Henrik from not just one Polish side, indeed, Motherwell have knocked back two bids for the player in the last six months.

Everyone at Motherwell Football Club would like to thank Henrik for his contribution during his spell at Fir Park and wish him every success in his future career.

Following the welcome decision of Stuart to remain as manager, the Board wanted to take the opportunity to update all Society members and supporters on the overall performance of the club at the end of another enjoyable and important season.

In our communications we want to remain fully transparent and clear about our performance, prospects, risks and opportunities. We have done well but the landscape of the game in Scotland remains challenging and material risks continue.

Significant progress must be made if we are to achieve our goal to be a fully sustainable fan-owned and community focused club.

On the Field Performance

Achieving a second place league finish and qualifying for Europe for the fifth time in six seasons was a tremendous result. We’d like to thank everyone involved with both the playing and backroom staff for their hard work during the season, which made this possible. We are sure everyone enjoyed the style of football and the competitive nature of the league.

Our Under 20s team went through a period of transition with a very young squad and a change of coach, with Gordon Young taking up his role as Academy Director and Jonatan Johansson taking control on a day-to-day basis.

After a challenging start to the campaign, the young players provided some real hope in the closing third of the season, remaining unbeaten in the last six matches and finishing the second half of the season with treble the points of the first. Jonatan and the club staff will work hard to develop and recruit players with the ultimate ambition of feeding the first-team squad.

Off Field Performance

Off the field we have re-structured our Commercial and Academy operations while continuing to expand our Community Trust. We believe that these three key areas are now extremely well placed to deliver value for the club, supporters, sponsors and other partners.

The ‘Well Society has made good progress during the year achieving important milestones of appointing a Board, making an initial share subscription and having two Directors appointed to the club board.  Graham Barnstaple and Brian McCafferty are not only the representatives of the ‘Well Society but importantly play a full and active role in all club decision making.

Financially we benefited from finishing second in the league however the prize money was reduced due to the agreed redistribution of a proportion of the second place prize pot to all clubs in January.

We also achieved lower than expected cup and transfer income and like many other clubs, a drop in our SPL pay at the gate revenue, which for us was approximately 10%.  This was partially offset by an increase in season ticket numbers.

Whilst the numbers have yet to be finalised, we expect the outcome for the season to be a low six figure loss.  Putting this into a context that the regular supporter can easily understand, had we progressed one more round in the Scottish Cup, the club would be reporting a small profit.  Equally had the gates at each home game been around 500 higher, we would have achieved a break-even position.

‘Well Society

The financial position of the club was assisted by the initial share subscription from the Well Society of £150,000.

Whilst those funds now belong to the club, they currently sit ring fenced in a separate account with the intention that they will continue to be used only to cover short-term cashflow gaps if possible. All other funds raised by the Society continue to sit outside the club and there are no immediate plans for any additional ‘Well Society support in the short term.

We continue to operate without any assistance from either a bank or a benefactor and aim to run the club at break even. After covering the normal costs of running the club, all income generated is invested in the playing squad but the flip side is that when we suffer a reduction in our income, we have less to spend on players.

Developments

The club, in partnership with the Motherwell FC Community Trust, is working on a project that will hopefully see the development of an Employability and Sports Training Hub / Facility in North Lanarkshire.

Due to the expansion in the number and the breadth and depth of programmes being delivered by the Community Trust, particularly around youth unemployment, health and wellbeing and increased participation in sport, there is a requirement to develop new dedicated facilities for this extended programme delivery which will also be available to strategic and delivery partners as well as community groups.

The club and the Community Trust are proud to be leading this exciting project, which, if approved, will benefit local people for many years to come.

Sponsorship

We are delighted to confirm that our principal club shirt sponsor, Cash Converters, have confirmed an extension which will see them remain as our main shirt sponsor through season 2013/14.

This has been a very positive and innovative partnership, which we hope will continue for at least another season and possibly beyond.  Their commitment and support to the club has been first class and their contribution, through interesting and fun match day activities has been excellent to date.

Breathing Space are again confirmed as our back of shirt sponsors and Motorpoint have also confirmed their support again as our short sponsors for season 2013/14

The club are in the first year of a three-year partnership with Maxim Office Park to rename the South Stand to the Maxim Park Office Stand.  This partnership is also supported through highly visible branding on the stand.

League Restructure

As most will know, there remains much uncertainty around the level of funding all clubs will receive from the Scottish Premier League (SPL) next season.

Last season, central funding from the SPL accounted for 34% of our total income. At the time of publishing, the SPL has no main sponsor for next season to replace the Clydesdale Bank, and the financial impact of any re-structure remains to be fully quantified. For budgeting purposes we are assuming a drop in central revenue for next season.

Conclusion – Continued Support Required

Against this background, it is vital that we are able to generate as much as possible from season tickets, through gate money, sponsorships and commercial revenue if we hope to retain and attract the quality of players we have become used to seeing at Fir Park over the last few season.

Absolutely key to this is season ticket income. We have worked hard to offer value for our season ticket holders and would ask all our supporters to either renew or seriously consider buying a season ticket for next season. Whilst other revenue streams are clearing important, the more money we are able to generate before the season begins, the more we have to invest in players.

We can also not over state how important the ‘Well Society is to the future of the club. We remain fully committed to transferring a controlling shareholding in the club to the Society but this can only be done once it has sufficient funding to be able to operate without risking the future of the club.

The Society currently has 1,164 members and has to date raised close to £420,000, 28% of the original target. Again we would ask all Motherwell fans to seriously consider joining. We believe this is the right model for club ownership in the long term and we will continue to work with the Society Board to do all we can to get to this outcome.

The Board would once again like to thank all who supported the club last year and look forward to welcoming everyone for the Europa and League campaigns in early August.

The Board of Directors of Motherwell FC

The latest in our Sunday brunch series is this weekend when Scotland’s top football impressionist Paul Reid is the guest at Fir Park.

It would be a perfect way to treat your dad the week before Father’s Day?

Not only will you be treated to a set from Paul Reid, as well as a fantastic lunch, every dad will also receive a special gift on the day – a Motherwell FC hipflask.

The event will start at 12.30pm and is priced at just £25.

To book this special event for you and your dad call 01698 333 333, email commercial@motherwellfc.co.uk or book online by clicking HERE

Since last October, when the society was handed over to the fans by the club, I am happy to report that we have made good progress on a number of fronts. 

For example, by

• Electing seven members onto the board, as well as two members onto the club board
• Representing members’ views through email contact, twitter and facebook, as well as organising a range of open meetings, including to discuss league reconstruction proposals
• Developing a new business club level of membership
• Publicising the society in a range and variety of ways, such as stories and updates in local and national newspapers, including the Motherwell Times and Wishaw Press, the Daily Record, The Herald and Scotsman, as well as the BBC and Sky News.

Last year, despite finishing third in the league, the club made an operating loss of over £500k.  Despite finishing second in the league this season, the club experienced a much lower than expected income from transfers and gate revenue, as well as having to pay for extra bonuses to management and playing staff.

On top of all that, the SPL has not signed up a new sponsor for next season.  All of which means that the club relies on the society for financial support at crucial times of the year.

I am also pleased to report, therefore, that we have assisted the financial position of the club through a share subscription of £150k.  This provided a much needed cash injection during the months of March and April to alleviate a temporary shortfall.

Your board and the club board are committed to the society model.  We both want the club to continue to be successful through prudent financial management and without any assistance from a bank or a single benefactor or consortium.  We both want to achieve fan-ownership of the club sooner rather than later.

So, if we are to achieve our purpose of acquiring a majority shareholding in the club as well as providing a financial safety net, we need urgently to recruit many more members.  To do that we need the help and support of current members to persuade their friends and fellow fans to join the revolution and get involved in the work of the society.

I would like to thank all those members who have supported the society and helped in various ways, such as organising events, participating in planning groups, or giving out leaflets, and so on.  I would also urge more of you to volunteer and get involved in whatever way you can.

Finally, I look forward to celebrating with you the club’s success in Europe next season!

An emotional Chris Humphrey left Fir Park for the last time this afternoon full of memories of his four years at Motherwell.

The Jamaican international signed a deal with English League One side Preston North End, bringing to an end a fantastically successful spell in Claret and Amber  including two ‘best of the rest’ finishes in the SPL, a Scottish Cup final and twelve matches in European competition.

It has been a rollercoaster of emotions for the 25-year old, who overcame personal tragedy early in his ‘Well career to mature both on and off the field.

[pullquote]I’ve loved my time at Fir Park, I’ve met some great people and made lifelong friends at the club and the football has been great for me too.[/pullquote]

Speaking exclusively to MFC TV for the final time, the former West Bromwich Albion and Shrewsbury Town winger said: “Your emotions don’t really kick in until you actually sign somewhere else and it dawns on you that you won’t be coming back.

“I’ve loved my time at Fir Park, I’ve met some great people and made lifelong friends at the club and the football has been great for me too; it really suited for wingers up in Scotland.

“When I first signed back in 2009, everyone knows some of the issues and problems I had off the field and the club were fantastic during that time, giving me the time off with my family that I needed.

“It’s times like that which makes this such a special place and why leaving is so hard. But I am looking forward to the challenge at Preston in what should be a very competitive league.

“I just want to thank everyone at Motherwell for everything and I’ll certainly be back soon to watch some matches.”

-WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW ON MFC TV–

Chris Humphrey has today signed a three-year deal with English League One side Preston North End.

The Steelmen had offered the 25-year old winger a new deal but he has opted to return south of the border and will officially join the Deepdale club on 1 July.

Humphrey leaves Fir Park after four fantastic seasons in Lanarkshire following his switch from Shrewsbury in the summer of 2009. He played 163 times in Claret and Amber, scored nine goals and has a countless number of assists.

Included in the games total are twelve matches in European football, including Europa League appearances against Steaua Bucharest, Odense BK and Levante U.D. and a UEFA Champions League outing against Panathinaikos.

During his term north of the border, the pacy winger was considered for the Scotland squad due to his Kilmarnock-born mother, but was eventually capped by the country of his birth, Jamaica, last summer.

Humphrey was subject to interest from a number of clubs but has chosen to join Simon Grayson’s side as they prepare to battle for a return to the English Championship.

Everyone at Motherwell Football Club would like to sincerely thank Chris for his outstanding contribution over the last four years and wish him every success in his future career.