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Following a physically demanding week, with the women of steel facing three back-to-back league tests, Paul Brownlie’s side return to action looking to replicate the performance that saw them cruise past local rivals Hamilton in the first Lanarkshire derby of the new campaign.

Striker Carla Boyce merited a place in the SWPL team-of-the-week, with the forward named as the ‘star player’ after netting a prolific hat-trick at K-Park.

Motherwell will face a somewhat unknown entity in Montrose, with the newly-promoted side looking to earn their first SWPL points after suffering four opening league defeats.

The Tale of the Tape

Motherwell

The women of steel have dusted off their opening weekend defeat to Aberdeen, impressing on three successive displays, picking up two victories over both Spartans and Hamilton.

The hosts will be looking to keep their unbeaten home record intact, with Brownlie’s side yet to concede in East Kilbride, whilst finding the target on five occasions.

Georgie Rafferty will remain doubtful for Sunday’s match whilst Laura McCartney & Lucy Ronald continue their return from long-term injuries.

Montrose

The Gable Endies reached the SWPL for the first time in the clubs history after achieving back-to-back promotions. The SWPL2 title-winning side cruised to a 13-point advantage over closest-rivals Gartcairn, but have since found life tough in the top-division.

The visitors have suffered four successive defeats to Celtic, Hibernian, Aberdeen and Partick Thistle, with the Angus side conceding 20-times since their promotion from SWPL2. Jade McLaren netted the sides only league goal in a 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen at Links Park.

Ticket information

Cash & card payments are also available for this fixture.

• Adult – £8
• Concession – £3
• Under 11s – Free to enter.

*Concession tickets apply to those over 65, and to 12–17-year-olds, with full-time students also eligible with a valid matriculation card.

Additional information – no pets allowed within K-Park.

How to follow the action

Supporters can follow Sunday’s encounter on Twitter @motherwellwomen, with a full report of the action available post-match.

New signing Brodie Spencer has been named in the Northern Ireland Under 21 squad. 

The Northern Irish will kick off their UEFA Euro Under 21 qualifying campaign in this round of games.

Spencer and the squad are in action twice, against Luxembourg and Ukraine.

Azerbaijan, England and Serbia are also in Group F.

They will face Luxembourg at home before travelling to Ukraine.

Northern Ireland U21 v Luxembourg U21

Thursday 7 September 

Mourneview Park Stadium

Ukraine U21 v Northern Ireland U21

Tuesday 12 September

Futbalový štadion NTC Poprad, Slovakia 

It’s time to vote for your G4 Claims player of the month for August. 

Callum Slattery, Blair Spittal, Paul McGinn and Dan Casey are all up for nomination.

To vote, head over to the Motherwell Facebook page.

Games in August

• Dundee 1-1 Motherwell
• Motherwell 2-1 Hibernian 
• St Mirren 1-0 Motherwell
• Motherwell 2-1 Kilmarnock

Please note, statistics below are taken from cinch Premiership games only.

Callum Slattery

At the heart of everything at the moment, Callum Slattery is continuing to be a critical part of the Stuart Kettlewell era.

The box-to-box midfielder has been involved in both defence and attack. He has made 16 interceptions and 13 successful dribbles from the middle of the pitch in three games.

Registering five shots, he was also involved in the first goal against Kilmarnock, where he had a give and go with Spittal before firing the cross into the box.

Still yet to win a player of the month vote in his time at Motherwell, Slattery has produced a fine month of performances.

Blair Spittal

Spittal has played every minute of every game this month.

Involved in the move that led to Dan Casey’s goal against Kilmarnock, he also setup Harry Paton for his last minute winner against Kilmarnock on Saturday, beating his man to the byline before cutting it back for the Canadian.

The midfielder has, similarly to Slattery, been involved in all areas of the pitch. He has had six shots and five shot assists in three games and boasts a 75% pass accuracy rating in August.

Paul McGinn

Often labelled as ‘Mr Consistent’, McGinn is up for nomination also.

He has made 100% successful dribbles this month, nothing an 80% pass accuracy record at the same time.

McGinn has been excellent at recovery runs in defence and has won 78% of his loose ball duels.

Against St Mirren, he was deployed at left-back due to injury, once again proving his utility on the pitch.

Dan Casey

Back for his second spell, Dan Casey has settled back into familiar surroundings. He has played every match since his first appearance of the season against Queen’s Park.

Strong and commanding at the back, he prevented Hibernian from registering a shot on target until stoppage time when they were awarded a penalty kick.

Casey kept Motherwell in the cup tie against St Mirren when Toyosi Olusanya raced through on goal. The Irishman somehow made it back to get in the defensive block.

The centre-back put in a man of the match worthy performance against Kilmarnock in the most recent game. He netted his first goal in Motherwell colours when he smashed home from Brodie Spencer’s knock back to draw the game level.

He then won Motherwell a penalty when he got the ball before Danny Armstrong to present Motherwell with the opportunity of taking the lead in the game.

He is currently 3rd highest in the league for interceptions and won 77% of his defence duels in the league so far.

Davor Zdravkovski has been named in the North Macedonia squad for the latest round of UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers. 

North Macedonia face Italy and Malta in this round of fixtures and are currently 4th in their group, three points off second placed Ukraine.

Zdravkovski was an unused squad in North Macedonia’s match against Faroe Islands in March and was named in the provisional squad in June.

The 25-year-old is yet to make his first international appearance at senior level.

Saturday 9 September

North Macedonia v Italy – 7.45pm K.O

Tuesday 12 September

Malta v North Macedonia – 7.45pm K.O

It’s Sunday action for Motherwell this weekend, with a trip to Edinburgh on the cards to take on Hearts. 

Kick-off is 3pm.

How to follow the game

Wheelchair and carer costs £15 with carer free of charge.

We have been sent physical tickets so no e-tickets are available for this match, postage and collection only from the Fir Park ticket office. You can purchase online. Please note, there are very limited tickets remaining with the Roseburn upper currently sold out.

Postage will be available until Wednesday 30 August. There will be no cash turnstiles on the day, tickets must be purchased in advance from the ticket office.

If you are outside the UK, you can watch the game via Motherwell TV.

Should you be in the UK, it will be live commentary only.

Kit Watch

We will be wearing our home kit for this match.

Team News

Calum Butcher and Jon Obika remain missing. The latter is expected to be out until December.

Mika Biereth has begun his recovery for a knee injury and will be missing for three months.

Pape Souare has missed the last two matches and will not be fit for this game.

Conor Wilkinson will be missing for a minimum of four weeks with a calf injury.

Motherwell’s fortunes

Motherwell have started the league season unbeaten. Two wins and draw mean the Steelmen are joint top of the league after three matches.

Goals from Harry Paton and Dan Casey earned Motherwell three points against Kilmarnock last time out.

Last time against Hearts, Motherwell beat Hearts 2-0 in what was Stuart Kettlewell last match as interim manager before he got the post permanently. Jon Obika and Blair Spittal got on the scoresheet that day.

Motherwell’s last win at Tynecastle came four years ago when they came away with a 3-2 victory thanks to goals from Declan Gallagher, Sherwin Seedorf and Jermaine Hylton.

Opposition report

Hearts have had a hectic start to the season, juggling the cinch Premiership, UEFA Europa Conference League and Viaplay cup matches.

They have a win, a draw and defeat so far in the league beating St Johnstone on the opening day.

The Jambos are in Greece for the second league of the Europa Conference League match against PAOK. They trail 2-1 in the tie.

Lawrence Shankland has continued where he left off from last season. The Scottish talisman has five goals and an assist in all competitions this season.

Conor Wilkinson has picked up a calf injury. 

The initial assessment is the striker will be missing for a minimum of four weeks. He missed our 2-1 win over Kilmarnock on Saturday.

Scoring his first league goal against Hibernian, Wilkinson now faces a short spell on the sidelines.

Motherwell were looking to bounce straight back having been knocked out the Viaplay Cup seven days ago against St Mirren. 

Back in league business and back at Fir Park, Kilmarnock were the visitors having been labelled the ‘in-form’ team in the league with respective victories over Celtic and Rangers already this season.

1400 travelling fans saw their team get off to the perfect start, with Marley Watkins netting the opener after just 12 minutes.

A flat first half performance saw Stuart Kettlewell bring Harry Paton into the action at half time in an attempt to spark some life into his team.

Dan Casey levelled things up on the hour mark before Callum Slattery missed a penalty on 78 minutes to turn the game on it’s head.

With the match seemingly ending in a draw, Canadian Harry Paton stepped up in the 7th minute of stoppage time to take the roof off Fir Park with a winner at the death.

Liam Kelly has been named in Steve Clarke’s latest Scotland squad. 

Scotland have a crucial EURO 2024 qualifier in this international break, with the dark blues travelling to Cyprus.

With four wins from four so far, Scotland are sitting pretty in the group. They are top of group, eight points ahead of second placed Georgia.

In their second match, Scotland take on old rivals England in a 150th Anniversary Heritage Match. It will mark the first meeting between the two sides in 1872.

Friday 8 September

Cyprus v Scotland 7.45pm K.O

Tuesday 12 September

Scotland v England 7.45pm K.O

It was derby day delight for the women of steel, as Motherwell dusted off Wednesday nights blues to secure the first Lanarkshire derby triumph of the 2023/24 campaign.

Carla Boyce netted an exceptional hat-trick across both halves to put the hosts firmly in the ascendency before Kaitlyn Canavan secured all three points with a composed finish minutes from full-time.

Motherwell move up into the top-six with six points from their opening four league games ahead of next weekend’s return to action, with Montrose the visitors at K-Park.

Head coach Paul Brownlie made two changes from the midweek defeat in Springburn, with Amy Anderson and top-goalscorer Kaela McDonald-Nguah both returning to the starting XI, as Kaitlyn Canavan and Sarah Gibb settled for a place on the bench.

Forward Shana MacPhail was named on the bench following the midweek acquisition of the striker.

Motherwell were certainly the livelier of the two sides in the opening few minutes, with the visitors forced into trading possession deep into their own penalty area.

Tara McGonigle’s in-swinging delivery from the right was superbly met by McDonald-Nguah in the air, but the forward’s headed effort was brilliantly tipped over the bar by the Accies stopper.

Motherwell continued to dominate possession and almost netted the breakthrough minutes later, with McGonigle lashing a strike from the edge of the box, but the wingers powerful attempt was met with another smart stop from the Hamilton keeper.

McGonigle continued to cause the visiting defence problems, picking out Chelsie Watson in the box with a pinpoint delivery, but the defender’s mistimed header fell agonisingly wide of the far post.

Chance after chance evaded the Hamilton goal until the breakthrough finally materialised on the 20-minute mark.

McGonigle again tied her opponent in knots before picking out Boyce with a looping delivery from the right, and the striker confidently netted her first goal of the new campaign with a close-range header.

Motherwell doubled their advantage on the half hour mark, with Boyce again adding her name to the scoresheet. Gill Inglis’ chipped through ball was excellently controlled by the striker, who shifted the ball onto her stronger right foot before calmly dispatching her strike into the bottom-right corner.

With the women of steel firmly in control as the second half resumed, Hamilton pushed forward, opening the game and allowing Motherwell to capitalise. A quick counter-attack reached McDonald-Nguah on the right, and the strikers drilled cross sailed through the six-yard box before reaching Boyce at the back-post, who coolly converted for her hat-trick.

Motherwell continued to threaten, with chances from Katie Rice and Amy Anderson narrowly evading the Hamilton goal, but the hosts sealed all three points in the final few minutes, with Canavan rounding off an excellent team move after diverting Louisa Boyes’ cross into the bottom-left corner.

With the first Lanarkshire derby victory of the season secured, Brownlie’s side will turn their attention to newly-promoted Montrose next weekend.

Ricki Lamie has joined Dundee on a season-long loan. 

The centre-half joined Motherwell from Livingston in July 2020 and has since gone on to make exactly 100 appearances for the club.

He will join Dundee immediately, ahead of their match against Hearts tomorrow.

Good luck for the season, Ricki.