No Rest for Some

Stephen Craigan is extending his record as the most capped Motherwell player by leaps and bounds as Northern Ireland continue their impressive run in the European championship preliminaries. He will be one of the first on the team sheet as NI go on the road to face Latvia on Saturday and Iceland next Wednesday.

Our trio of Scotland U21s will hope to be involved in Finland on Saturday then at East End Park at 5.15pm on Wednesday when they entertain Denmark. McCormack, Fitzpatrick and Reynolds can only gain from their experiences but they may find it a little strange to be back under the control of Maurice Malpas!

Meanwhile the main Scotland squad have the prospect of a mouth-watering tie against France next week. The Lithuania game on Saturday should act as a warm up to the game in Paris and there are a couple of graduates from the Fir Park school of football who are likely to be key to our hopes. McFadden and McCulloch will be watched with particular interest by 'Well fans and we hope that they grab a few goals to cheer our old gaffer, McLeish.

Let's hope all of our players return fit and well for the trek to Aberdeen next weekend.