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K-Park will be the home ground for our Women and Development Team this season.

With a new campaign looming, Paul Brownlie’s squad have completed their pre-season preparations and look forward now to their first league game on Sunday against Dundee United.

The first league match to be played at K-Park will be against Glasgow City on Sunday 14 August.

Our Development Team will kick off their 2022/23 Reserve League campaign against Queen’s Park on Tuesday 6 September with the first league match against Hamilton Academical on Tuesday 4 October.

Kick-off is 7:45pm.

We are back on the road this weekend when we face Aberdeen in the cinch Premiership.

Kick-off is at 3pm at Pittodrie Stadium.

Tickets

Tickets can be bought online by clicking here or by visiting the ticket office at Fir Park.

Ticket office opening times
Monday – Thursday 9am – 5pm and Friday 9-4pm

Adults: £26
Over 65: £20
Over 75 and Youth 18-21 year old: £16
Under 18: £12
Under 12: £6

Aberdeen have allocated four pairs of wheelchair tickets priced at £12, the carer goes free. Ambulant disabled tickets are charged at the age-appropriate rate and again can be issued with a free carer ticket should the supporter require it

How to Follow the Game Online

PPV and virtual season tickets options are not available for cinch Premiership matches this season if you are in the UK. This is the case for all cinch Premiership clubs.

If you are outside the UK, you will be able to watch online at live.motherwellfc.co.uk.

The story of the match

The Dons have had a strong start to their competitive 2022/23 season. They finished top of their Premier Sports Cup group, scoring 12 goals and conceding zero.

An opening day 2-0 defeat to champions Celtic was followed by a convincing 4-1 victory over St Mirren on Saturday. New signing Miovski, Clarkson and Duk all got on the scoresheet.

Motherwell continue their search for a permanent boss, with the Steelmen having a mixed start to their 2022/23 cinch Premiership campaign.

After beating St Mirren 1-0 in Paisley on the opening day, a late Stevie May finish sunk the ‘Well to their first defeat of the season at Fir Park on Saturday.

Match officials

Motherwell B take on East Kilbride on Tuesday night in the first round of the SPFL Trust Trophy.

Kick-off at K-Park is 7.45pm.

The ‘Well youngsters face a difficult task as the Lowland League side have started the season in fine form, with four wins from their opening five games.

There are also some familiar faces on show with former Motherwell players Jonny Page and Bob McHugh within the EK ranks.

Tickets

Tickets are available online.

Adults: £10
Concessions: £5

Match Officials

• Referee: Colin Whyte
• AR1: Paul O’Neill
• AR2: Tommi Kerr

A difficult afternoon for Motherwell as the women of steel struggled to break down an organised Dundee United side, who held on in a disappointing season opener for Paul Brownlie’s side.

Danni McGinley netted Dundee United’s first ever top-flight goal early into the first half before Kaela McDonald-Nguah levelled from the penalty spot.

Looking to impose themselves, last season’s SWPL2 champions started brightly and almost found the opener after only four minutes.

Latching onto Jade Mclaren’s long ball, Robyn Smith sliced through the Motherwell defence, but the strikers powerful effort rattled off the crossbar in what was an early warning sign from the hosts.

United continued to threaten and eventually netted the opener after ten minutes. Summer signing Emily Mutch was caught in possession on her six-yard box, and McGinley was on hand to calmly place her strike into the empty net.

The hosts were denied a second minutes later as Lauren Doran-Barr’s last-ditch challenge diverted Smith’s close-range effort wide of the post.

With the second half underway, Motherwell quickly sought to rectify their first half display. Katie Rice’s floated corner kick accurately picked out Chelsie Watson unmarked in the box, but the defender couldn’t divert her effort towards goal.

Motherwell were then unlucky not to score when Carla Boyce nicked in front of the defender and tried to dink the ball into the net, however her effort came off the bar.

The women of steel were convinced they should’ve been awarded a penalty after Lucy Ronald’s cross struck the arm of Tammy Harkin, but the referee quickly waived play on despite the adamant pleas from the Motherwell technical area.

After waves of attacking pressure, Motherwell finally found their reward. Ronald was bundled down deep into the United penalty area, leaving the referee no alternative but to point to the spot.

McDonald-Nguah stepped up and confidently placed her strike into the top-right corner.

Motherwell move on to face runners-up Glasgow City at K-Park next week.

Paul Brownlie took over at Fir Park as head coach and head of women and girl’s performance at the end of the 2020/21 season, and right away set to work on a massive overhaul.

The women’s team at Fir Park had suffered a tumultuous year, with the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic contributing to a season where survival was all that mattered.

They would achieve their objective, finishing third-bottom of the table, four points ahead of Hearts who ended last, though there was still a great deal of work ahead.

Recruiting former Scotland international Leanne Crichton as player/assistant manager was Paul’s first big addition to the setup and over the months leading up to the beginning of the campaign, he would continue to bolster his squad with a whole host of new additions.

The Women of Steel would go on to perform well in Brownlie’s first year in charge, finishing one place higher in the league and registering a significantly better points tally.

Much of their improved fortunes could be put down to a strong ending to the season, and Brownlie admits that preparations for their first game this time round have been significantly different.

“The challenge for us at Motherwell is how we kick on this season and the players know that,” said Brownlie.

“The players have got short, medium and long term objectives in terms of what it is that we want to achieve going forward.

“There’s a real sense of belief now things are settled. It’s a totally different environment when you compare it to last season when we were preparing for the Glasgow City game on the first day and didn’t feel settled at that stage.

“The players were given off- season programmes, which was something that they didn’t have last season due to the timescales. It has also given us the opportunity to meet up with the players too and discuss areas where they did well and where they can improve.

“It’s testament to the players and to their characters, they’ve created a real environment and they
push each other in every training session.

“We know it’s going to be difficult, there’s been large investment across the board, however we’ve invested well too. At Motherwell we don’t have that professional model as yet, but what we do have is players that have a professional mentality and that’s going to be really important for us going forward.”

Motherwell ended their pre-season preparations with a 6-1 victory over Gartcairn, taking their record to four wins and one defeat in five preparation fixtures during July.

As well as performing well in matches, Brownlie has been thrilled with the dedication of his existing squad and recruitment of new players over the summer months.

Most of the core of the squad have remained in ML1 for the new season, and the Well boss has

also added Brogan Anderson, Emily Mutch, Emma Lawton and Lucy Ronald to the ranks.

“The players have been excellent, they’ve really bought into what myself, Leanne and other staff has tried to implement,” he added. “Last season we were trying to build a team, it was a massive transition then compared to this year where we’ve been able to focus much more on how we are going to approach things tactically and work on our principles in and out of possession.

“There’s not been a big overhaul in terms of the playing group, the players we’ve identified, we’ve managed to get which is excellent. There were some players who left the club, but we feel that quality has got a lot better, which is the ongoing target.

“Everybody we wanted to keep stayed, even when some had offers where they may have been better off financially. They’ve stayed here because I think there’s a real buy-in to what Leanne and I are trying to achieve.

“In terms of our transfer strategy, we’ve got two approaches, the first is the academy which we are trying to build, bringing youth players through is so important – we’ve had five players in over the summer from the academy and they’ve got good time as well.

“From there it was about identifying other quality, SWPL2 has always been part of the strategy in terms of who they best players are in there. We’ve been able to go get Brogan Anderson and Lucy Ronald, who were two of the best players in that league.

“We were also able to get in Emily Mutch, we knew the goalkeeping department was going to be absolutely huge for us this season and knew we had to get it right. That’s no disrespect to the goalkeeper who was here before, but to bring Emily in was a huge a signing for the football club, the fact she’s still so young, but she’ll bring in so much quality too.

“I think it was signing that showed the distance this football club has travelled, certainly during my time anyway, she’s a fantastic talent with a great future ahead of her.”

As well as signing players with exciting futures ahead of them, the future looks bright with a number of prospects emerging from the youth academy.

London Pollard and Jemma Hughes will both join up with the Scotland’s Under-19s squad in the midweek for a training camp, and Pollard has already made an impact for the national team having scored twice and making three assists during wins over Kazakhstan, Estonia and Kosovo.

Brownlie believes that international honours for his players demonstrates the huge strides the club is making.

Having previously worked with the Motherwell elite academy at Braidhurst, Paul is keen to put that experience into building a pathway for young female players to excel.

“Jemma has come through the youth system here, and London established herself in the squad last season,” Paul explained.

“By all accounts her performances were excellent, she got a couple of assists and a couple of goals.

“The challenge for her is to go cement her place in the team this year, and can she add it to that? Can she improve her goal tally? Go embrace the experience of what youth international football gives you?

“For Jemma the target is to get into the squad as well, she was in and around a couple of the training camps, but never quite made that final jump into one of the squads until now.

“That has to be a realistic target, especially with the quality she showed at the end of last season, everyone at Motherwell certainly believes she is good enough to play at that level.

“We’ve made huge strides, it was a big part of the remit for me when I walked through the door here. I quickly recognised we had to make a performance pathway to help young girls play at this football club.

“I think everyone knows the success that Steven Hammell and the guys have had within the elite academy. I was fortunate enough to work alongside them for a year, and wanted to build something similar for the girls. We’re around 10 months into the process of building the project and the strides we’ve taken have been phenomenal.

“We’ve tried to be different in terms of what we offer young players and think at this time, the academy is evolving really well – there are some brilliant young players who in time will be future first team players and future Scotland players as well.”

After a season playing at Alliance Park, K-Park in East Kilbride is set to be the new home of Motherwell women in 2022/23.

In April, Fir Park hosted almost 800 supporters as Brownlie’s side took on Hamilton.

It was a demonstration as to the interest in women’s football in Scotland, though the Well gaffer realises they have to carry on that momentum.

This summer’s European Championships may not have featured Scotland, but given the widespread attention the tournament has received, Brownlie insists the landscape for women’s football north of the border has never looked better.

He also praised key figures behind the scenes at Fir Park, for driving the highest standards both on and off the pitch.

“The people who work behind the scenes here, they’ve got a real passion for this football club and they are determined to do whatever they can to make it successful,” added the former Scottish FA high performance manager.

“I’ve had real support from Alan Burrows and Steven Hammell – I try to convey their passion to the players, and they all recently attended the Sligo home game.

“We want to be fully integrated within the football club, which we are, and everyone is working on striving to make the women’s department bigger and stronger.

“Something we encourage the first team and academy players to do is go watch games. I think that’s a unique way to learn. We’re constantly telling the kids at the club to watch players who play in their position and to find their role models.

“That’s something we’re trying to do in the first team here as well, we want players at Motherwell who youngsters can aspire to and look up to.

“We had a fantastic event at Fir Park last season where the team played in front of just under 800 fans, and how we engage with those supporters moving forward is going to be crucial – they are going to be part of our journey.

“The quality we’ve seen from start to finish at the Euro’s has been fantastic, and it’s important that these young players aspire to get to that next level. There’s much more opportunities in this country now, some clubs are going full time and others adopting hybrid models – I’m sure over time that’s something we’ll be doing at Motherwell as well.”

Following tomorrow’s trip to Dundee United at Thomson Park, the home of Lochee Juniors, Motherwell
will host last season’s runners-up Glasgow City.

It is sure to be a stern challenge, but an impressive end to 2021/22 and a strong pre-season has given plenty of cause for optimism.

The team won their final two league matches and also contested two matches against eventual champions Rangers where they lost both fixtures by a single goal.

A look back on previous results against some of the tops teams shows that a one goal defeat is certainly positive progress, and Brownlie and his staff continue to try further steps forward.

“We finished last season on a real high in terms of the last five games we won three, and lost to Rangers in the other two narrowly – we had a bit of momentum,” he continued.

“We know Dundee United’s qualities and have made sure we have done our homework as a staff group.

“There isn’t a team that train any more than what we train, the volume of training here is getting players better every single training session and that’s the target for them.

“We’re quite hard on them in terms of the intensity of the training sessions, but that is what is needed to compete with the top teams – we’ve trained five times this week in the build-up to the Dundee United game.

“We’ve got our targets internally, we made good use of our time on the bus to the friendly at Sunderland to discuss with the players what our aims were, breaking it down monthly.

“We know the challenge, but it’s one that all the players are up for.”

Academy graduate Chloe Forrest has joined Glasgow Women on loan for the rest of the season. 

The centre-half, who has been involved in pre-season friendly matches this season, is looking to push onto the next step ahead of her push to break into the first-team.

“We have high hopes for Chloe,” head coach Paul Brownlie added.

“She is a young, hungry and talented individual with an excellent work ethic.

“We that this loan spell is an opportunity for her to play regular first team matches in SWPL1 and allow her to progress as a player.

“I am excited to see how she gets on this season and will be monitoring her progress closely.”

“The overwhelming feeling right now is disappointment. At the very least, we should be coming away with a point today.”

Stevie Hammell’s return to the Motherwell dugout as interim manager was a disappointing one, as St Johnstone nicked all three points with a late Stevie May winner.

Stephen O’Donnell’s goal at the start of an additional six minutes cancelled out Jamie Murphy’s first half opener and provide the Steelmen with a deserved share of the points.

Ultimately, despite a stirring second half, the the Fir Park men paid the penalty for a lackluster first forty five minutes. Until the final minutes the Perth side clung on to Murphy’s goal with some solid defending and a slice of luck to keep ‘Well at bay.

On a pristine Fir Park pitch, the home fans seemed undaunted by the last performance against Sligo Rovers as they gave the players a rapturous welcome.

Hammell made two changes, Bevis Mugabi coming in for the suspended Ricki Lamie and Stephen O’Donnell filling Jake Carroll’s spot at left back.

In a positive start from the Steelmen, Sean Goss won a free kick wide of the box. Kevin van Veen elected to go for goal but his curling shot soared over the crossbar.

Goss was next to try his luck after 16 minutes, but after being set up by Josh Morris 25 yards from goal, the left sided midfielder dragged his shot wide of target.

Clumsy tackles and careless passing from both sides prevented either from gaining a hold on the game.

The game needed a spark and it almost came from Saints after 25 minutes. After conceding possession at the edge of the box the ‘Well defenders could only watch as Theo Bair drove the ball straight at Liam Kelly.

Motherwell failed to heed that warning and three minutes later they fell behind.

Mugabi and Bair rose at the edge of the box and as the ball drifted behind them, former ‘Well goal scoring hero Murphy latched onto the ball before driving his shot low across the diving Kelly and inside the ‘keeper’s far post.

That injected a bit of life into the home side and four minutes later they were inches away from an equaliser.

Barry Maguire and Morris kept possession at the edge of the Saints’ box and when the ball bobbled to Connor Shields, he fired a speculative shot past Remi Matthews only to watch it bonce back off the ‘keeper’s right hand post.

The home goal then had a lucky escape seven minutes from half-time.

Cammy MacPherson headed the ball back across the face of Kelly’s goal but with Andy Considine standing a few yards from the goal-line Sondre Solholm hammered the ball off the former Aberdeen defender and away to safety.

The first half ended with van Veen again firing over Matthews’ cross bar as the Saints’ ‘keeper waited to make his first save of the game.

Hammell recognised his side’s lack of goal threat and brought on Dean Cornelius and Joe Efford for the start of the second half.

And it had an immediate effect when van Veen sent Efford in behind Alex Mitchell but as the American striker was about to pull the trigger, the Saints’ defender made a terrific recovering tackle.

At the other end Solholm made an equally impressive intervention to squeeze MacPherson’s cross just beyond the inrushing Bair.

With an hour on the clock van Veen set out on a solo effort drifting across the box before his tame left foot drive gave Matthews a comfortable save.

As ‘Well pressed for an equaliser, chaos in the Saints’ six yard box set up a chance for Shields only to see his effort blocked by the combined efforts of Matthews and Mitchell.

Motherwell made another substitution after 67 minutes with Ross Tierney replacing Blair Spittal.

Mugabi’s mazy fifty yard run after 74 minutes earned him applause from the ‘Well fans and a free kick wide on the right but the inswinging ball from Goss found no takers.

A minute later McGinn’s inviting cross did find a team mate but Shields glancing header sent the ball wide when he really should have tested the ‘keeper.

For the third time in the second half there were strong appeals for a Motherwell penalty when Ryan McGowan barged into Tierney’s back but once again Willie Collum ignored the claims.

With eight minutes remaining Matthews’ was forced into a last gasp save when Goss mishit his trike from outside the box but the bounce was carrying the ball just under the bar until the ‘keeper raced back to palm the ball over his crossbar.

In a final attempt to grab a point Irish striker Robbie Mahon was given 10 minutes to find an equaliser.

In the first of six added on minutes ‘Well eventually found the net.

Goss whipped a corner into the six yard box and O’Donnell’s header directed the ball low into the far corner of the goal.

Incredibly, three minutes later Saints regained the lead.

Following a corner McGowan steered a header behind the ‘Well defence, where May ghosted in to steer the ball low beyond Kelly and take all three points back to Perth.