Motherwell start season 2024/25 on Saturday when Edinburgh City visit Fir Park to get the Premier Sports Cup group stage underway.
Matches against Montrose (a), Clyde (a) and Partick Thistle (h) will complete the section in a fortnight. The best three of the eight group winners will be seeded in the knockout stage. Maximum points and a healthy goal difference are the targets that Stuart Kettlewell will pursue.
The new scoreboard was unveiled at the last visit of Edinburgh City
The early capture of nine players has given the manager the opportunity to see the squad gel with a week in the Netherlands and a couple of domestic friendlies. Supporters had a chance to see most of the new starts in the games against Livingston and Linlithgow Rose. No doubt some will feature against the Division Two side.
Liam Gordon impressed at Fir Park on Saturday as did Moses Ebiye. Lennon Miller can be expected to direct operations from the centre of the park.
Aston Oxborough and Krisztian Hegyi shared goalkeeping duties in the friendly matches. A choice will have to be made on Saturday.
Edinburgh City completed their preparations with a game against Dalkeith Thistle on Wednesday. Innes Lawson and Robbie Walker scored in a 2-1 win.
This will be the third meeting between the teams. Previous clashes were in 2017 and 2018 and Motherwell took the honours. The last fixture at Fir Park came with a 5-0 scoreline. Maybe the margin will be a little less this time with a 3-0 home win.