Town legend Terry Butcher says he is trying to emulate the Ipswich Town of the seventies and early eighties at Motherwell. Butcher's side are currently third in the SPL.

Butcher says of his time at Town: "It was a very good formula at Ipswich, with a blend of older and younger players. There was a conveyor belt of talent there and we have young players coming through who are very similar, and if we could have the same sort of success that Ipswich did, or lay the same sort of foundations, I would be absolutely delighted. It was a good winning formula."

Butcher says Sir Bibby Robson has inevitably been a big influence on his management: "I didn't mould myself on Bobby Robson but he was Ipswich. He got Ipswich galvanised and organised and made it an excellent football club.

"This is an excellent football club with the foundation to have a really good future and I hope that will be the case."

Butcher is hopeful that Motherwell can get into Europe for the first time since 1995 this season: "Why not? Let's drive forward to see if that is a possibility. But it is only seven games into the season and it may be well beyond us.

"But we will do the best we can to make progress towards it. We will have a right good try at it even though there is a long, long way to go."

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