PRE-SEASON friendlies rarely offer up any incentive for your average punter to swap their Pimm's and gardening gloves for a Bovril and a plastic seat during the summer months.
Generally they are rather placid affairs, giving fans the chance to get an unreliable look of how their team will not set-up for the forthcoming campaign, while also affording players the chance to reacclimatise after a four-week stint tearing it up in Magaluf.
There are some exceptions to the rule, however. Last summer Motherwell fans got a glimpse into the past as James McFadden was rolled out as the star attraction in Stevie Hammell's testimonial match against former club Everton. The palpable sense of giddy excitement emanating from the Fir Park frequenters back in July was more akin to a group of teenage girls in the front row of a pop concert.
It's little surprise, then, that hearts are beginning to flutter once more at the news that the Motherwell pin-up is looking like making an unexpected return to the place where it all began. McFadden watched on from the stand as his former team, with whom he is training after being released from Sunderland, pushed aside the first-half resistance from Inverness Caledonian Thistle to climb over Terry Butcher's side into second place in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.
The former Scotland international returning to Lanarkshire is not an alien concept, but there is a renewed belief that somehow, this time, it is different. "I think it might bring a few more punters in. I got him in for my testimonial at the start of the season and it helped the numbers," said Hammell, who captained Stuart McCall's men on Saturday in the absence of the suspended Keith Lasley. " He has been in training with us and has been excellent, you can tell he's still a top pro, the young boys are learning off him as well.
"If we could do something to get him in then it would be a massive coup for the club. You look about Fir Park and there's pictures of him all over the place from his time here. Everyone still remembers him and he's held in such high regard even though he only played for a few seasons. It's a signing that would lift everyone. It would come at the right time for us as we are playing so well at the moment.
"We talk every day in training and have a bit of banter and ask him if he fancies it. He has other offers I think, he's on the phone to clubs every day, but his family are here and maybe he'd like to stick around for a while."
Where he would fit in to the Fir Park masterplan remains to be seen, as the club now look to further a sustained run as the Premier League's final furlong comes into view. For the most part on Saturday, McCall's men looked back to their best after last weekend's Kilmarnock collapse, clinically punishing an Inverness side that will be quite glad to see the back of them.
Despite missing Lasley and Fraser Kerr, Stuart Carswell and Kallum Higginbotham, on his home debut, both came in to play a crucial role in the Motherwell midfield, the former stifling the creative nous of Ross Draper and Andrew Shinnie, with the latter lending a new dimension to the hosts' attack.
Michael Higdon's double, a 30th-minute tap in from a shanked Henrik Ojamaa cross and a calm but clinical volley 11 minutes after the break, book-ended a frantic passage of play that resulted in Nicky Law eventually thrashing into the net.
This was Butcher's third trouncing by his old club in as many games this term, so it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise that no player from the away dressing-room wanted to offer their thoughts for today's paper on a defeat that took their winless streak to six games. Instead, it was left to Butcher to sum-up.
"It was just one of those days," he admitted. Perhaps the less said, the better for Inverness, while tongues will no doubt continue to wag in Lanarkshire.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article