Win can get our season kick-started
Livingston ...... 0
Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson says his side’s Betfred Cup second round win over Livingston can kick-start their season.
Danny Johnson struck to book the Steelmen a quarter-final berth against Hearts next month, and Robinson said that was a win his team couldn’t have achieved last season.
He explained:“i thought in the first half we were very good and their keeper kept them in the game; it could have been more comfortable, but I thought it was a real battling cup performance and we deserved to go through.
“It can kick-start our season. We have lost two games, that’s it, same as last season, and we are in the next round of the cup.
“There was never any panic from me. If you look at our injury list, last year we couldn’t have coped with that, we wouldn’t have won this game.
“But we have strengthened, we were able to bring Aaron Taylor-sinclair and Conor Sammon off the bench. We were able to rest Allan Campbell, who has had one week off in the summer.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do that last season, so I genuinely believe that has stood us in good stead.”
The game started in
Motherwell ...... 1
whirlwind fashion, with both sides going close to scoring in the opening 10 minutes.
Steven Lawless saw a long-range effort crash off the bar, and at the other end Liam Kelly had to be smart to keep out Johnson.
Kenny Miller had a long-range shot tipped over by Trevor Carson, and as play raged up the other end, Johnson’s shot rebounded clear off the upright.
Chances continued to flow in the opening 20 minutes, with Livi’s Lee Miller clipping a shot wide of the front post, before Richard Tait forced another fine save from Kelly as the keeper punched away his header from an Elliott Frear cross.
It was then Carson’s turn to keep the score-line blank as he tipped Craig Halkett’s header over.
Motherwell broke the deadlock in 23 minutes when Curtis Main pounced on a defensive error and headed to the bye-line, where his cutback was perfect for the on-rushing Johnson to sweep low past Kelly from 10 yards.
Before the interval Motherwell pushed for a second to help put the tie to bed, but found Kelly a hard nut to crack, with the home keeper producing brilliant saves to deny Carl Mchugh and Main.