Battle To Play Football On Fir Park Pitch

Most teams like to play games at home but Motherwell players have taken a liking to playing away from their Fir Park pitch. The Steelmen's last six games have been on their much-criticised Fir Park pitch which is suffering double punishment as they ground-share with Gretna this season. Midfielder Stephen Hughes cannot wait to head north to Pittodrie for a decent surface when the Lanarkshire side play Aberdeen on Wednesday. Saturday saw 'Well lose to Hearts - thanks to a Stephen Craigan own goal after 10 minutes - in a gale force wind which, allied to the patchwork, sodden surface, provided a telling argument for summer football. Players like Hughes suffered more than most as there game is based on slick passing. Manager Mark McGhee subbed Hughes in the second half as the home side struggled in vain to equalise. Hughes said: "I don't want to harp on about the pitch. It's just an easy excuse. It was the same for both teams and they adapted better. I don't know how many games in a row that we've played at home but it will be good to get an away game and play on a decent pitch. It suits our football and we like to get the ball down and pass it. We showed that early on in the season. But the other side is that in games like Saturday, we need to roll our sleeves up and get on with it."

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee was equally keen to play on some grass again. He said: "Hughes missed the game against Inverness last midweek and we didn't want to force him for the whole game. He will be better for it on Wednesday at Aberdeen where hopefully we will be playing on a pitch where we can get back to passing the ball. You can't ask boys at the back to risk getting on the ball and passing it in to midfield where it bobbles and then the second touch is a header. It is impossible. You just have to hook it on and we are not best suited to that."

Scotland manager George Burley took the Fir Park game in on Saturday with a view to naming his first squad for the friendly against Croatia at Hampden at the end of March. He may have struggled to see just what players could do due to the conditions the game was played in. Hearts' stand-in boss Stevie wanted to highlight the form of skipper Christophe Berra in terms of international recognition. Frail said: "George has a lot of good players to choose from and it's wrong for us to tell him who to pick. But I think Christophe is going about his business in the proper way and hopefully he is included in the squad. Along with keeper Steve Banks and the rest of the back four, I thought he was fantastic." Frail also admitted he is still in the dark over the reported £1m move of top scorer Andrius Velicka to Norwegian club Viking FK.