Early Years:

In 1886 Motherwell fc was formed by the amalgamation of Motherwell's 2 main works teams, Glencairn and Alpha. In early years Motherwell played at Roman Road in Motherwell. In the 1890's they moved to Daziel Park and finally to their present ground, Fir Park.

Under the management of Britains longest serving manager ever John 'Sailor'Hunter Motherwell won the leauge Championship for the only time in our history in 1931. After the war Motherwell were on the up. In 1950 we beat Hibs (who had the Famous 5 front line playing that day) 3-0 in the leauge cup. In 1951 Motherwell were beaten after a final replay against Celtic in the Scottish Cup.

One of the finest victories in Motherwell's history was the 1952 Scottish Cup victory over Dundee in which we won 4-0. 152000 fans watched Motherwell win the game at Hampden Park. Only 2 of that team are still alive.

The memorable Ancell Babes of the 60's were a joy to watch. One of his players being Ian St John, who later managed the club and also played for Liverpool and Scotland, he is now a tv pundit. Although they never won anything they were entertaining to watch.

In the 1970's and early 80's Motherwell had alot of different managers including Ian St John, Willie Waddell Willie McLean, Ally McLeod and Davie Hay and the team ended up in the 1st division.

In 1984 Tommy McLean took over as manager and immediately had to sell Gary McAllister to Leister. He introduced two players who were to become legends, Tom Boyd and Ally Maxwell. Tommy McLean was well known for building good teams with little money to spend on players. He took Motherwell to the Premier Leauge and have remained there ever since.

In 1989 Rangers player Davie Cooper signed for Motherwell for ?0000 and this was seen as the "Steal of the century" 'Coop' was one of the finest left wingers ever. He would leve you gasping with amazement at his skill.

The knowetop terrace

4th Round Motherwell play Falkirk. Motherwell take the lead only for Falkirk to equalise. We take the Lead and they equalise. Then we take the lead again through 'Super Sub' and then get another goal to take us to the quarter finals.

Q Finals The first game is a none event. The replay against Morton at Cappelow ends 1-1 at full time withe Tom Boyd scoring for us. In the penalty shoot out a Morton player blasts the ball over the bar and we win 5-4 on penalties.

semis: Motherwell do well to hold Celtic to 0-0 in the first game at Hampden. In the second game we go 2-0 down. Dougie Arnott gets a goal back and then equalises in the second half then Colin O Neill scores a thunderbolt from 35 yards out and then Stevie Kirk wrapped it up with a 4th goal.

final: We get Dundee UTD We get the first goal they equalise then Ally Maxwell gets injured then ODonnell and Angus score then utd score twice and then in extra time Kirk gets the winner. Motherwell had won the cup.
The team that day was: 1.Maxwell 2.Nijholt 3.Boyd(c) 4.Griffin 5.Paterson 6.McCart 7.Arnott 8.Angus 9.Ferguson (12.Kirk) 10.ODonnell 11.Cooper (14.ONeill) (Scorers names in bold)

click to view final program


For the european run the east enclosure is fitted with seats

Over the next few seasons the terraces are replaced with stands

In 1994 Motherwell finished 3rd in the leauge with Rangers and Aberdeen finishing above us. Tommy McLean left to manage Hearts and Seib Dykstra left to go to QPR and Phil ODonnell left to join Celtic for a record transfer fee of 1.75 million. The one thing I will remember about Tommy's later teams is the strike force of Coyne and Arnott. These quality strikers would be a handful for any defence as both would average around 20 goals a season each. Alex Mcleish took over as boss and led us into Europe and to 2nd in the Premier leauge.
The usual team that season was
1.Woods 2.Shannon 3.McKinnon 4.Philliben 5.Martin 6.McCart 7.Lambert 8.Dolan 9.Coyne 10.Arnott 11.Davies Subs 12.Kirk 13.Howie 14.McGrillen

The following season was a nightmare. Tommy Coyne got injured and the Strike force of Arnott and Burns couldnt score a goal. We went 8 games without a goal until we signed Willie Falconer from Celtic. We were 9 points adrift of Falkirk at the bottom until we got 2 goals in a 3-2 defeat by Rangers after that we battled our way to 6th place. The next season was another battle. We needed 1 point to avoid the play off place. We also needed Hibs to draw or lose to Raith and Hearts to lose. We were losing 2-1 to Dunfermilne and Hibs were drawing until, Mitchell Van Der Gaag hit a rocket of a shot into the back of the net, saving our skins. Alex McLeish left the following season to go to Hibs, not after we gubbed them 6-2 in the leauge (Hibs were relegated that season).

One thing that 'Big Eck' will be remembered for is some of his dodgy signings. For example, John Hendry who was always injured, Andy Roddie whose shots at goal often ended up in Knowetop Primary, behind the East Stand and swapping Steve Kirk and Paul McGrillen for Eddie May the utility player, (he could be just as bad in a number of positions). I will always remember watching a defeat by Hearts and shouting to my dad, why is Eddie May playing up front?

HARRI KAMPMANNS SIGNINGS SEASON 98-99

Possibly the worst ever manager in our history Harri Kampmann took over. He got rid of a lot the fans favourites such as Coyne, Arnott, Falconer, Martin, Philliben, McSkimming, Garcean, Hendry and Weir, replacing them with alot of duds such as Holm Kraska (who was so bad he never got a game for the club), Rob Matthei, Kia Nyssonen, Jan Michels, Stirling, McClair (who was past it by the time he made his second return to the club) and Miko Kaven and the team played a negative style of football. On the positive side he bought Jamie McGowan, Shaun Teale, Michel Doesburg and Derek Adams. He also got rid of new club captain, Brian McClair which gave the fans something to cheer about. But the fans were losing patience, we were bottom of the leauge, playing with one striker and hardly loked like scoring. When John Boyle replaced John Chapman, he introduced some bright new ideas such as reduced admission fees. He also brought in the player/chief executive Pat Nevin. Harri Kampmann decided he couldnt work with Pat Nevin so he left and was immediately replaced by Billy Davies who has the team playing attacking football. On his second game in charge he led us to a 1-0 victory over the on form Rangers with his 2 recent signings Ged Brannan and John Spencer. His ambitious signings didnt stop there. He signed former Rangers and Scotland goalkeeping legend Andy Goram until the end of the season, he was made Club Captain. Other signings were Don Goodman,Tony Thomas and Stephen Nicholas. The next season he added another 4 outstanding buys. Wingers Kevin Twaddle and Derek Townsley can be outstanding on their day, Benito Kemble was an absolutely brilliant defender Martin Corrigan. Motherwell finished that season in 4th position. Bad press blighted the Motherwell team that season. First of all Rob Matthei came out and said in the press that Billy Davies was keeping him out the first team out of jelously and if he had been younger he would have punched him. The next big scandal was the supposed Motherwell, Airdrie merger scandal which blew over. Then Shaun Teale was controversially sacked after he slated John Boyle and Billy Davies in the press. The park was relaid, but there seems to be a drainage problem at the away end with a number of games being postponed or abandoned. Season 2000/01 saw a number of star players dissapear out the door due to rising costs. Andy Goram has gone on loan to Man U, Brannan, McMillan, McCulloch have gone to Wigan, Spencer to an American Team, Goodman to an english team on a free. John Davies and Tony Thomas(last 2 couldnt be described as star players) went on free transfers and good ridance to those 2 as were rubbish anyway.

2001/02 was a disaster for Motherwell with the club being forced into administration with spiraling debts and having to get rid of 17 players, Eric Black the manager and Pat Nevin the Chief Executive. On the positive side with Terry Butcher in Charge the team improved and there was alot of young players who really gave their all.

2002/03 Motherwell are still in administration and at the foot of the table however we had a good cup run, getting to the Scottish Cup Semis and with players such as Hammell ,Corrigan, Pearson, Lasley, MeFadden and Clarkson, the team avoided Relegation.

2003/04 was a good season for Motherwell with a top 6 finish and coming out of administration, although we lost James McFadden to Everton and Stephen Pearson to Celtic early in the season.

2004/05 the team are having a jekill and hyde season, they are winning or drawing about 5 games on the trot and then losing or drawing 5 games on the trot. We are out of the Scottish Cup in the 3rd round after a defeat by Kilmarnock and in the Semis of the CIS cup

MOTHERWELL SEASON 99-00
Strips for 99-00

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