Fir Park, not yet fully unboxed.
Morton visit Fir Park today to take on Motherwell in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup. This is the second meeting of the two clubs in the past year. They played a friendly at Cappielow on July 5th, 2011, and Motherwell won 3 - 2.
Morton and Motherwell last met in the Scottish Cup five years ago yesterday at Fir Park, and Motherwell won 2 - 0.
The Motherwell Times reaches back to 1991 for an angle on today's game.
There are eleven Premier League teams and five First Division teams left in the competion. None of the First Division clubs in this round are fortunate enough to be matched with Rangers or Celtic. On the one hand you want to avoid the Old Firm and hope they are eliminated by someone else, but on the other hand a home game against one of them is a cash cow. Morton v Rangers would have filled Cappielow. To my mind the match of the day is Ayr v Falkirk. Both clubs have been giant-killers in cup competition this year. Ayr eliminated Inverness, Hearts and St Mirren in the League Cup before falling to Kilmarnock last week. Falkirk beat Rangers and Dundee United in the same competition before going down to Celtic. [Ayr v Falkirk is postponed, as are a bunch of Second and Third Division matches.]
Fir Park seats 13,742. Set that against the town's popluation of 30,312 and you'll appreciate that Motherwell and Motherwell FC have done all right despite the collapse of the Scottish steel industry, which was once the mainstay of the town. If you want to see where Motherwell FC might be today with a thriving steel industry in town, I suggest you look at Pohang Steelers of South Korea's K-League.
The Delgados are from Motherwell.
Referee for today's match is Euan Norris who, according to the Motherwell website, likes to keep his cards in his pocket.
And what of Largs Thistle's Junior Cup replay against Arniston? The game is off. But the eventual winner will meet Kelty Hearts.
[Oh, man. Motherwell 6, Morton 0.] [Morton haven't outscored Motherwell in a game since 1983.]
[Dundee United have eliminated Rangers.]
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