Dunfermline v Motherwell - Preview

By Pride of Lanarkshire
January 23 2004

Motherwell head to East End Park this Saturday hoping to get back to winning ways after last week's defeat at Ibrox.

After starting with the same eleven for the last 4 matches Terry Butcher will now have to make changes to his side after Scott Leitch was ruled out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.


The match will be Motherwell's first on Dunfermline's plastic pitch which has come under loads of critism this year. Like all other SPL clubs Motherwell were allowed a training session on the surface so they can get some practise before the match. Well Boss Terry Butcher had no problems with it, he told the official site" We trained on the pitch for one hour 40 minutes on Tuesday and it was very good and Dunfermline were very hospitable towards us as they always are. Some of the players had played on it with the Under 19s and 21s, but the players took the opportunity to test out different types of footwear. "





" We trained on Tuesday, rather than Wednesday or Thursday that everybody else has done, to get any stiffness out of the players legs before the game on Saturday. We played a full tempo practise match and there were less players slipping on the surface than there was at Ibrox on Saturday ! "


" We were only allowed on training session but we are looking forward to, it may be different but we need to treat the game as a one off and be positive in everything that we do. "


" The surface may help us as we are a footballing team that try to get the ball down and pass. Dunfermline have a good home record, but they also had a good record last season on grass, and we don’t have a good record there in recent years. Having said that we are re-writing records this season in away games, when we have won at grounds where we have had a poor record in the past. "


Pre Match stats

Dunfermline are now unbeaten in their last six home games.

Motherwell haven't won at East End Park since May 2001

Motherwell have lost their last 5 matches at East End Park.




Prediction -
Dunfermline 2 - 1 Motherwell