Motherwell - Review of 2008 (2)

July

The players returned for pre-season training and were soon off to Austria. Brian McLean suffered knee ligament damage in a friendly and many months of recovery followed. Jim O'Brien joined up but John Kennedy was not released by Celtic. A glamour match against Villareal failed to materialise but we faced Wolves, Bradford and Preston North End at Fir Park in preparation for the season opener. The Main Stand now bore the legend, "The Phil O'Donnell Stand".

The Phil O'Donnell Stand

August

We lost the first game of the season at Tynecastle despite two equalising goals from Clarkson. An 82^nd minute strike from Mikoliunas sealed the 3-2 loss. Two home games against Aberdeen and Dundee United produced only one point before the first win at Easter Road thanks to new signing John Sutton. The Uefa Cup draw paired us with Nancy and started a run on cheap flights, trains and ferries as the Claret and Amber army made plans for our first European tie for thirteen years.

Quinn, Sutton and Porter celebrate

Motherwell lost another stalwart when news of Jamie Dolan's death was released. A cruel twist revealed that he had been in training for the upcoming Dougie Arnott testimonial game. The scramble for tickets for the Nancy game was eased when the club secured an extra allocation but the club's inability to manage the sale efficiently brought much criticism. We lost the game in France but thousands of Well fans had a wonderful trip. A four game losing run was completed when Accies scored an extra time goal in a League Cup tie at Fir Park. We ended the month with a home win over St Mirren had had collected seven points from our opening seven games.

Well fans on the march in Nancy

October

The month started with the second leg of the Uefa Cup. We were humbled in front of 11,000 disappointed fans by a far better Nancy side and our adventure was over. Our league form picked up and we managed two wins and one loss in the month to reach seventh spot in the table. Much confusion was generated by the announcement of an ill-judged pricing initiative. Though well intentioned, the scheme gave huge benefits to fans of Rangers and Celtic and it was soon buried (along with Ian Stillie who left within weeks).

The East Stand packed for the Uefa Cup

November

A busy November brought six SPL matches and the first of those, against Hamilton at Fir Park, delivered three points and closed the first cycle of fixtures. Motherwell were in third place and though our play hardly compared to the previous season's sparkling fare we were comfortably in the top half. A collapse followed and we took only one point from the next seven games. The goal scoring habit disappeared and only one goal came in that bleak period. The pricing initiative delivered only 9,600 when cut-price Rangers visited.

Say no to racism

December

The troubles on the park were bad enough but the club got plenty of stick when a frozen Fir Park pitch forced the postponement of the game against Hearts early in the month. The club has to respond to the SPL early in the new year to answer the charge that it failed to deliver adequate pitch protection. The fourth round of the Scottish Cup offers an interesting trip to Inverurie Loco Works and all 500 tickets were snapped up by season ticket holders on the morning of sale. The year ended with a win when Inverness were beaten 3-2 thanks to a rare Well hat trick, Chris Porter scoring all three with his head. Tributes were paid by the club, fans and players, as the first anniversary of Phil's passing was marked.

A chilly Fir Park

Part 1 of the 2008 review is here.

The Year in Review 2006

The Year in Review 2005

The Year in Review: 2004

The Year in Review: 2003

The Year in Review: 2002

The Year in Review: 2001