Motherwell v Fulham - Preview

By Paul Marshall
July 31 2003

Motherwell finish off their pre season this Saturday against Premiership opposition, London giants Fulham are the visitors to Fir Park.

Fulham's visit to Fir Park is their first match since their 2 - 1 defeat from Italian club Roma. Despite the loss Fulham striker Louis Saha is confident going into Saturday's game, the Frenchman fired home from 25 yards in the 2-1 defeat against the Italians to add to his goals against Torquay and ASK Voitsberg earlier in the month. Fulham will be without midfielder Sean Davis will miss the match after being ruled out for at least five weeks with a knee ligament injury.





Motherwell who are unbeaten so far in this pre season know this will be the toughest of all the matches. After two draws against Hamilton and Stehousemuir, the Fir Park club then went on to beat Ayr 4 -1 and Carlisle United 2 - 0 which will boost the confidence of the side for Saturdays meeting. James McFadden could play some part in the match despite being well short of match fitness, the 20 year old's foot is healing quicker than expected. Terry Butcher said " Hopefully, James will take some part in proceedings against Fulham at home and that would put him in the frame for the Dundee game," said Butcher. "



Fulham stats -

Steed Malbranque was the club's top goalscorer last season with 13 goals.


Fulham's average attendance last season was 16,707 which was the lowest in the Premiership.


Their manager Chris Coleman is the youngest person to manage in the Premiership. Below is a list of recent managers.


2003 - Chris Coleman

2000-03 John Tigana

1999-00 Paul Bracewell

1998-99 Kevin Keegan




Fulham squad -



1 Edwin van der Sar

12 Maik Taylor

16 Zat Knight

4 Andrew Melville

39 Dean Leacock

24 Alain Goma

25 Abdeslam Ouaddou

27 Pierre Wome

17 Martin Djetou

26 Jon Harley

36 Mark Hudson

18 Sylvain Legwinski

6 Junichi Inamoto

8 Lee Clark

23 Sean Davis

33 Callam Willock

11 Luis Boa Morte

14 Steed Malbranque

7 Steve Marlet

20 Louis Saha

34 Elvis Hammond

9 Facundo Sava

15 Barry Hayles

40 Andrejs Stolcers



Pride of Lanarkshire prediction -

Motherwell 1 - 3 Fulham