Butcher back in business as club turn the corner; Alan Campbell finds

THEY might not have won any trophies, but April has been one of the most auspicious months in Motherwell's history. Almost exactly two years after being placed in adminis-tration, the Lanarkshire club should be formally discharged in midweek.

On the field, Terry Butcher and his side also grew in stature. Gaining a place in the top six which breaks off after this weekend is not the pinn-acle of Olympian achievement, but the 1-0 Thursday night win over Dunfermline which confirmed it culminated a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the side who propped up the Scottish Premierleague last season.

There is, it can be argued, a case for suggesting that it is Butcher, and not Martin O'Neill, who is Scotland's manager of the year, although equally there is not a chance that the former England captain will be awarded the accolade.

Asked how the transformation had been achieved, Butcher replied: "It has been a combination of factors. Tom Lucas (the sports psychologist employed by Motherwell) came in and managed to get the players to focus their minds in training. The confidence has grown off the back of winning and forming a good base of points.

"We weren't playing catch-up like last season. We've had some great wins and performances and we've been playing a lot better football. The players have grown in con-fidence because of that."

Today, Motherwell travel to play Aberdeen at Pittodrie, and the fixture has good memories for Butcher.

"Our 3-0 win there earlier in the season was one of our best displays," he said.

"The spirit of the players has been fantastic, and to have that after what happened last year is testament to what has been happening at this club.

"It hasn't just been the young players. The senior ones have grown up this season as well."

Remarkably, Motherwell's young side has been one of the best behaved this season after behaving like a rabble the previous campaign. Then, Butcher's players missed 33 games through suspension - but only when Keith Lasley was booked against Dunfermline on Thursday was Motherwell's first ban of the year instigated.

"It's incredible," agreed Butcher. "Stephen Pearson was sent off against Partick Thistle but that was rescinded. Thanks to Tom Lucas the players are not doing things off the cuff this year in terms of reacting and getting red cards."

If all this was not good enough news for Motherwell, a brief appearance in the Court of Session on Tuesday ought to lead to the club being officially taken out of administration on Wednesday or Thursday.

That will mean the close of play for administrator Bryan Jackson, of PKF, who moved into the club at the end of April, 2002. The creditors, including nine players who were made redundant, have accepted terms of 20p in the pound.

"I won't be involved in the running of the club any more," confirmed Jackson, whose only remaining responsibility will be to ensure the creditors are paid. Asked what his response was to the end of the two- year ordeal for Motherwell was, Jackson said: "Mixed. The good bit is that the purpose of the administration, to preserve the company, has been served although we didn't achieve it the way we thought we would by selling the club on the basis of its pedigree more than anything else.

"Maybe we were a bit naive in terms of the actual way the industry was going, but we achieved it by other means which was basically selling two players, James McFadden and Stephen Pearson.

"We achieved what we were meant to do. I suppose the negative from my point of view is that a very interesting job is at an end.

"The running of the club will revert back to the same shareholders and directors. The shareholding didn't change during the administration and John Boyle is still the major shareholder. His shares are still up for sale if somebody wants to come along."

The return to the status quo presumably means that Boyle, who is currently in Canada and was not available for comment, will be back in charge at Fir Park later this week.

Jackson admitted that the sale of McFadden and Pearson to Everton and Celtic respectively had been both fortuitous and timely. "We didn't know at the outset of the adminis-tration that we were going to have two players of that value, or that we could have achieved that value in the marketplace," he said.

The administrator paid tribute to the work and enthusiasm of Butcher. "This year he has played the largest role of anybody in the club, in that we are in the top six. He came through a learning curve in the first year."

It is not entirely a success story, however. The nine sacked players are among the creditors who will have accept only 20% of money owed. For Karl Ready, who was due around (pounds) 400,000, that means a payment of (pounds) 80,000 instead.

"I suppose it is the one sour note, particularly to the players' union who are still going on about it," said Jackson. "It has always been wrongly reported that it was 19 who were made redundant whereas 10 were out of contract.

"It was nine, as well as six non-players which people don't bother writing about. But that was out of a playing pool of 50. Nineteen left, so the positive side is that 30 retained employment.

"It is said by Fraser Wishart all the time that the SPL have stated that Motherwell have to pay the balance of the money due to these players. They've never said that - all they said was that contracts have been breached and these are the amounts that are owed. They can't legally instruct the company to pay.

"The other thing is that they're not being realistic. Even if they were different from any other creditor, where would the money come from to pay them?"

Before he took his side to Pittodrie yesterday, Butcher said: "I could never have envisaged this at the start of the season. A top- six place wasn't even in my wildest dreams."

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