9am Briefing: Calderwood hails late Killie goal

Calderwood admitted he thought the game was heading for replay tomorrow night, "the last thing I wanted", until Gavin Skelton's strike hit the bar and bounced in off the Italian in the 82nd minute at Rugby Park.

The 1-0 victory set up a home clash with Inverness and allows Calderwood some precious time on the training pitch with his new players.

The former Aberdeen boss had two games in his first four days in charge at Rugby Park – the first a 3-0 loss to Motherwell – and he believes the chance to organise his side could prove invaluable before Saturday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash at Pittodrie.

"It's nice to get out on the training pitch and get organised," he said.

"We're not a good talking team but that could also come with confidence. But you can be better organised when you have three or four days on the training pitch."

Brown in apology to Motherwell chief

CRAIG BROWN has apologised to Motherwell chairman John Boyle after the Steelmen were on the wrong end of a cup upset against Inverness.

The Lanarkshire club were beaten 2-0 in the Highland capital last night as they bowed out of this season's Active Nation Scottish Cup at the fourth round stage.

Former Scotland boss Brown, currently in interim charge at Motherwell said: "I feel really sorry for the club and for the chairman, who came back from his holiday in New Zealand to see that.

"It's not good to go out of the cup this early because the club could have made a lot of money from staying in the competition.

"I actually spoke to the chairman before the game and he told me that Motherwell's performances in the Scottish Cup in recent years have not been good, so I would like to apologise to him for not doing better."

Murray win 'felt like Wimbledon'

BRITISH tennis No.1 Andy Murray claimed he felt like he was playing at Wimbledon after winning his first-round tie at the Australian Open under the Rod Laver Arena roof yesterday.

The fifth seed brushed aside South African qualifier Kevin Anderson 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 to begin his quest for a first grand slam title in impressive fashion.

The match was played indoors because of the persistent showers that left the outdoor courts at Melbourne Park sodden and forced 14 women's and 13 men's matches to be postponed until today.

After his win Murray said the atmosphere felt like SW19, where he played under the new retractable roof for the first time last year.

"You create your own atmosphere on the court, but the conditions are similar to Wimbledon with the roof," he said.

"It actually slows the court down like at Wimbledon. It gets quite humid in there, whereas it's pretty dry heat normally, and it's just quite heavy.

"It slows the court down a bit, so that was a bit different."