| 3 | Rangers | 11 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 22 |
| 4 | Dundee United | 12 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 19 |
| 5 | Motherwell | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 19 |
| 6 | St Mirren | 13 | 4 | 3 | 6 | -5 | 15 |
| 7 | Dundee | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -6 | 12 |
Goalkeeper Matty Connelly has joined Lowland League side East Kilbride on loan until January.
The 21-year-old made 11 appearances for EK during his loan spell their last season.
Keeping two clean sheets in that time, Connelly will look to secure the number one jersey and gain valuable minutes of first team football.
Good luck, Matty.
Motherwell are looking to progress to the quarter-final of the Premier Sports Cup on Sunday 18 August, as they play Kilmarnock.
Kick off is 2pm at Fir Park.
Season ticket holders have until 5pm on Thursday to secure your own seat.
| All stands | |
| Adults | £20 |
| Concessions | £10 |
| Juveniles | £5 |
Supporters are able to buy tickets online or visit the ticket office at Fir Park.
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.
Radio Law will be on hand collecting money for a bucket collection.
They broadcast both live and automated shows from studio within University Hospital Wishaw.
They provide entertainment, of a local origin, to the patients of University Hospital Wishaw, helping to take their mind off the reason for being hospitalised. In recent years, this has been expanded by the station being available on-line, whereby relatives and friends can listen in and interact also.
Bars
The Cooper Bar will be open from 12 noon serving food and drink. Come along and try the club’s new food menu and have a refreshment before the game. The bar will re-open for one-hour following the match.
The Centenary Bar will also open from 12 noon (for drinks only). The bar will re-open for one-hour following the match.
Our new Beer Garden will open from 12 noon for drinks and hot rolls, weather permitting (home fans only).
Ticket Office
The ticket office will open from 11am as normal.
Hospitality
The Cooper Box is the only hospitality option for this match:
Price: £45pp
We will be wearing our home kit for this match.
Callum Slattery, Harry Paton, Ross Callachan, Sam Nicholson, Shane Blaney, Filip Stuparevic and Johnny Koutroumbis remain out for this game.
Apostolos Stamatelopoulos came off early against Rangers last Saturday with a suspected thigh issue. He will be missing for this match.
Motherwell showed some fight against Rangers last weekend. Despite a depleted squad, Stuart Kettlewell’s side could consider themselves unfortunate not to come away with a point from the national stadium.
A draw with County on match day one sees the Steelmen remain on one point going into this match.
Apostolos Stamatelopoulos joined the list of absentees after the new striker came off early last weekend. That takes the total number of casualties up to eight.
Kilmarnock have had a hectic start to their season, competing on a European front and domestically. They were knocked out of the Europa League by Cercle Brugge, falling to a 2-1 defeat on aggregate.
They now travel to Tromsø on Thursday night for the second leg of their Conference League tie, with the first tie ending 2-2 at Rugby Park thanks to a late leveller from Bobby Wales.
In the league, Kilmarnock are one of only two teams not to have got a point on the board as yet. An opening day 4-0 defeat to Celtic was followed up by a 3-0 loss to St Johnstone on home turf. Joe Wright seen red after just 16 minutes in the match.
Tony Watt has returned on loan from Dundee United until the end of the season.
In his first spell at the club, the forward made 70 appearances in the claret and amber and found the back of the net 19 times.
“If you look at Tony’s record, he is available to play all the time,” manager Stuart Kettlewell said.
“He is a player who has done well here with goals and strong performances. We jumped at the chance to bring him back to Fir Park and Tony himself was desperate to return.
“Tony had lots of other options, both home and abroad, but he was fixated on coming back here.”
Watt left Motherwell for Dundee United in 2022.
“It’s so good to be back in the building,” Tony Watt added.
“I was itching to join Motherwell again and can’t wait to get stuck in.
“There’s obviously people who may not be too happy to see me back. I need to prove myself here and get people back on my side but that target is firmly set in my mind. I feel fit. I’ve been training and I have a full pre-season under my belt.”
Motherwell visited the national stadium looking for back-to-back wins against Rangers. In what was a hectic first 25 minutes, chances came for both teams.
Rangers converted two, while an own goal got Motherwell back level at one stage.
A depleted Motherwell side found their way back into the match and had it not been for some world class goalkeeping from Jack Butland, the Steelmen may have been leaving Hampden with more than just a pat on the back.
Motherwell came away from Hampden empty-handed on Saturday afternoon as Rangers secured their first win of the season in a 2-1 victory over the Steelmen.
Despite late pressure and a great save from Jack Butland, first half goals from Cyriel Dessers and Václav Cerny gave the Glasgow side the three points.
The Steelmen had the first real chance of the game after just four minutes. Stephen’s O’Donnell’s flick over the top of the defence found Lennon Miller who was able to stay onside, however the 17-year-old could only find the side netting with his effort.
Incredible defending from captain Paul McGinn then kept the scoreline level as he raced back to clear off the line from Scott Wright, who had skipped past Aston Oxborough in the Motherwell net.
Rangers took the lead a minute later when Mohamed Diomande got on the end of a deep ball into the box and his header across goal was converted by Dessers.
Incredibly that lead only lasted a few minutes as from the next attack, ‘Well were level. Steve Seddon, on his first start for the club, advanced down the left wing and saw his cross steered into his own net by Robin Propper.
It looked like something to hold onto and build on but Rangers were back ahead shortly after. Cerny found far too much space and from the edge of the box curled his shot into the top corner of the net with a fine finish from his left foot.
Motherwell were dealt a blow as new recruit Apostolos Stamatelopoulos limped off with an injury and was replaced by Zach Robinson just before half time.
In the second half, Robinson had arguably the two best chances.
Firstly the ball dropped to him 12 yards out after good play from O’Donnell but he couldn’t hit the target.
As time was running out for an equaliser, he then produced an incredible save from Butland. Lennon Miller picked him out and on the swivel, his low shot was somehow beaten away by the Rangers stopper despite the number nine doing everything right.
Some half chances from Liam Gordon and O’Donnell didn’t threaten the Rangers keeper as the game edged closer to it’s conclusion.
It was all Motherwell at that point – with plenty of long-throws being launched into the box but the Steelmen could find no way through and left the national stadium with nothing to show for their efforts
Stuart Kettlewell gives his thoughts on the 2-1 defeat to Rangers at Hampden.
Summer signing Liam Gordon says he has settled in very quickly after his switch from St Johnstone and is looking forward to the season ahead.
With so many injuries amongst the squad, Gordon explains why it’s important he does everything to avoid injury and also reminisces about his previous ventures to the national stadium.
They say that patience can be a virtue but for goalkeeper Aston Oxborough, it’s more than that. It’s been a part of his daily professional footballing life. He arrived in North Lanarkshire with very few minutes to his name.
Despite being on the books of Norwich for 14 years, he never actually featured for the first-team.
Training and applying himself every day in a professional manner, the opportunity to showcase his talents never appeared and so, the time came for Oxborough to try something new.
That was in August 2022, when he arrived at Motherwell on the eve of Steven Hammell’s first match in charge as the permanent manager of the club.
“A lot has happened since I arrived,” Oxborough reflected.
“My loan at Barnet from Norwich was the last string of games I got. It was frustrating, it’s a hard club to breakthrough at. I was kept back on training and didn’t get out on loan until I was 21, which is quite late.
“That was frustrating but looking back, I wouldn’t change it as that’s how I’ve shaped myself. Norwich always rated me highly and I was in youth England squads. I was always used in first-team training so when I went on loan to Wealdstone, I was playing catch up a bit in terms of actual games.
“There was so many long balls and direct play with decisions to make. It was great for me. Everyone’s journey is different.
“Nick Pope didn’t play much when he was young but he went right down the leagues and started to play more. Look at him now.”
That lack of minutes became an issue for Oxborough and so he sought a move away from a club he had spent 14 years of his life with. A new environment, league and team was the perfect solution. But as he arrived at Motherwell, there was another keeper standing in his way.
“I wasn’t aware of the keeper situation here until I did some research before I joined,” he explained.
“Liam Kelly had won player of the year awards and had an excellent track record. I knew there might be an opportunity to prove myself further down the line so that’s what I aimed for.
“The first year was harder because when I signed, the manager [Graham Alexander] was gone straight away. So, I had to show what I could do with a new manager and then soon after, he was gone too.
“It’s tough not being able to show what you can do and I knew there would be questions about what I was doing here and what I actually brought to the table.”
What he did bring to the table however was a professional attitude.
As a second choice keeper with limited minutes, the only way you can showcase yourself is on the training pitch, and that’s what he continued to do.
“I had a chat with the manager at the end of that first season,” Oxborough said.
“I said I understood the situation but I needed an opportunity to show what I could do. So, we agreed that I would play two of the cup games.
“It was nice to get back out on the pitch after not playing. You don’t overthink things but you think about how you’ve been waiting for this chance for so long. It puts added pressure on you.”
Those two appearances in July 2023 seen Oxborough save a pivotal penalty against Queen of the South that earned his team a bonus point and also registered a clean sheet in his second outing. But that was all the minutes he seen for the remainder of the season.
However, he remains at the club for his third season as he battles out for that number one jersey with West Ham loanee Krisztián Hegyi.
“The message to me was we think you’re good enough,” the 26-year-old said.
“There was a good understanding of the situation. I’ve been patient for two years and want to give it my all for another year.
At the end of the day, I came up here for a reason. To test myself in the SPFL.”
It’s a similar start to the season for Oxborough as he has featured in two matches during the group stage of the Premier Sports Cup, which has seen him save three penalties in shootouts.
“You don’t practice saving penalties to be honest. I think the frame helps,” he laughed.
“It’s about going the right way using the analysis. Neil Alexander is good with knowing where the player is going to go.
“On the bottle from the match against Thistle, I had a name and where they’re going to go. We have a booklet where it has their last five penalties but the bottle is more precise. I was told to be discreet about it and then I seen there was a photo of me reading it!
“I read the information and that’s where I’ll go unless I see a trigger or his body language tells me something. All the penalties against Thistle said to go right so as the shootout went on, in my mind I was thinking the takers will think he’s gone right so he’ll eventually go the other way, I got two and nearly the third.
“I’ve done better than the games last year and I’ve had a different mindset going into these games. I think last year I put too much pressure on myself, this year I’ve tried to enjoy it.”
Stuart Kettlewell is quizzed about the eight injured players amongst his squad, as the Motherwell boss outlines timescales on recovery.
He also discusses that despite competitive games against the old firm since he arrived means very little when it comes to Saturday’s challenge at Hampden. Kettlewell says he will need to get creative with the players he has available.
Stuart Kettlewell has provided a detailed update on the fitness level of some of our playing squad.
Ross Callachan will now be out for a period of time, having picked up an injury in training.
“Ross has a bad one,” manager Stuart Kettlewell said.
“In a light training session on Monday, in the last 20 seconds he pulled up with a hamstring injury. It looks bad enough that it will keep him out for a period of time.
“Lennon Miller was carrying a knock at the weekend but he still thrust himself forward to play. He shrugged it off but he took another whack during the game on Saturday, hence why he came off. He’s not trained this week so he’s a doubt for this weekend.
“Shane Blaney has an impact injury from Saturday. He’s got a tear in his medial ligament which will keep him out for four to six weeks.
“Shane’s one of the robust guys, as soon as I seen him put his hand up I knew there would be something significant there.”
