Airbles Railway Station is the closest to Fir Park, but is only served by a local service. You are more likely to end up instead at Motherwell Central station, which is around a 15 minute walk away from the ground.
You exit the train station facing the main shopping street in the direction of the ground; go straight along it through the shopping precinct/centre; past the shopping centre car park, which leads to an underpass; go under the underpass, up the stairs and turn left; go straight on and the large stand gradually comes into view from behind Wilsons Furniture Store. The road 'forks' at this point with away fans, and those going into the old seated terrace going to the left and all other fans to the right. Away fans walking from Motherwell should note, that the road to the away end is a long and winding one (you think you're there when you see the stand, but it takes about another 5 minutes to access it), so should allow plenty of time.
FIR PARK STADIUM
The stadium is dominated by the large South Stand at one end. Almost twice the height of the other stands, it is two tiered with a row of executive boxes running across the middle and has a capacity of 4,500. Opposite, the Davie Cooper Stand, is a small covered seated stand. The single tiered Phil O'Donnell Stand on one side of the ground, is both raised above pitch level and set back from it. This older stand has windshields to either side as well as a few supporting pillars. It is unusual in that the stand itself doesn't run the full length of the pitch, but the supporting steelwork does, making for an odd looking sight. According to Simon Inglis in his book 'The Football Grounds Of Great Britain', this was because it was originally intended in 1962 to build a full length stand but due to a dispute with a an owner of a house beyond the corner of that ground (a dispute which the club lost) it was never completed as intended. This stand was funded chiefly from the sale at that time of Ian St John & Pat Quinn to Liverpool. This did not go down well with the fans as many subsequently boycotted the stand and to this day it is the most sparsely populated section of the ground. Opposite is the smaller East Stand, which also has a number of supporting pillars, running across it. This originally was a covered terrace, but was made all seated in 1990.
Away fans are housed in the South Stand at one end of the pitch. Normally only the lower tier is opened for away fans, but if demand requires it, then the upper tier can be opened also. Up to 4,500 fans can be accommodated in the two tiers. The view of the playing action from this stand is pretty good, as well as the facilities.
On this occasion the South stand wasn't used and the away fans were located in the Main stand toward the Davie Cooper stand side.
GROUND LAYOUT
A PHIL O'DONNELL STAND (MAIN)
B EAST STAND
C DAVIE COOPER STAND
D SOUTH STAND (AWAY)
Motherwell had a short trip to Rugby Road on Saturday and were soundly beaten by Killie 3-1. The Well opened the scoring through Curtis Main in the 16th minute but Main failed to double their lead from the penalty spot minutes later. That's as good as it got for Motherwell as Kilmarnock was spurred on by the penalty miss and levelled after 39 minutes with a goal by Chris Burke. Killie then took the lead four minutes later, Greg Stewart sending his team in at half time 2-1 up. The Ayrshire side sealed the three points in the 59th minute, Eamonn Brophy showing Curtis Main how it's done from the penalty spot to put his side 4th in the league table ahead of Celtic and Rangers. Motherwell are 3rd from bottom, (at the time of writing), and need a win this afternoon to kick start their season. The Well have won only once losing five out of seven games played.
Livingston entertained Rangers at Almondvale on Sunday past and beat the Glasgow team with a single goal scored in the 34th minute by Dolly Menga. This inflicted Steven "Ger"-rard with his second defeat in 18 matches leaving the Scottish Prem giants in sixth place behind rivals Celtic two points adrift. Livingston rise to 3rd place level with Hibs on 14 points and giving the league table an unusual look with the two Edinburgh teams, Hearts and Hibernian, in the top two places with the old Meadowbank Thistle close behind but it is still early on in the season.
I can only find three occasions were Motherwell have taken on Livingston at Fir Park and the Well have come out on top in all three, in fact in the total games that these two teams have played against each other Motherwell have only lost one and that was on the 14th February 2004 at Almondvale, a saint Valentine's day massacre with the score being 3-1 to Livi.
MOTHERWELL ... 1 LIVINGSTON ... 1
Livingston extended their undefeated run to seven matches but at the same
As in their last match Motherwell opened the scoring this time in the 17th minute when Allan Campbell's pass was slotted home by Ryan Bowman with the help of a deflection putting an end to Livingston's three match spell of not conceding.
Livi thought they had levelled just before half time but Ricki Lamie's effort was disallowed after the linesman flagged for an infringement and brought the Lion's celebrations to an abrupt end.
Livingston did manage to steal a point in the 64th minute when the referee awarded the Lion's a free kick after a bad foul by Peter Hartley which also earned him a yellow card. Keaghan Jacobs took the kick and scored a cracker curling the ball from 25 yards into the keepers top left hand corner of the net.
Carl McHugh of Motherwell received a yellow card in the 70th minute for a bad foul on Declan Gallagher but the Well number four didn't heed his warning as eight minutes later he foul's Livi's Dolly Menga and is sent off from the field of play. This gave Motherwell a nervous ending to the game especially when Lamie brought a reaction save from Trevor Carson who managed to block the ball on the line with his knees.
Motherwell did manage to hold on though and remain in 10th place in the league table a point above St. Mirren but with a far better goal difference. Livi stretch their unbeaten run but drop one place to fourth as Kilmarnock beat Dundee 2-1 at Dens Park.
Smashing little ground is Fir Park could do with some TLC and modernisation though especially in the stand where I watched the game. I was amazed at some of the things I saw today, things that I thought had been outlawed at football grounds such as people standing in the seated area and the major one people smoking inside the ground although it was down by the turnstiles / exit doors of the stand.
MATCH DETAILS
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