‘Top six is a no-go if we can’t keep ball out the net better’

IF, indeed, there is a right way to lose a game of football, then Motherwell’s insipid surrender to Aberdeen was about as far removed from it as you could possibly imagine.

in his heart of hearts, manager Mark McGhee would have given his side slim chance of leaving the Granite City with a prized victory, but the efforts and concentration of his players recalled the old wisdom about needing to buy a ticket for the raffle in order to win the prize.

Admittedly, there was little that could be done about Ryan Christie’s sublime strike into the top corner and the coup de grace delivered by Peter Pawlett on the counterattack as the visitors tried to retrieve a crumb of respectability.

However, to concede two goals from corner-kicks — one from a complete breakdown in communication and another from a lazy challenge that resulted in a penalty was unforgivable.

Motherwell’s season will not be defined by visits to such strongholds as Pittodrie.

But it might well hinge on their ability to ensure the loss of such soft goals does not punctuate more winnable matches.

‘Of course, we are extremely disappointed with the performance,’ said captain Keith Lasley (pictured).

‘First and foremost, the result takes care of itself but the performance from us was poor.

‘When you come to a place like this and perform like that, there is only ever going to be one outcome.

‘All credit to Aberdeen, they played well and have a lot of good players but we were poor. There were a lot of individual errors, myself included, and we never quite got into the game. We were poor and we got punished.’

How concerned should fans of the Lanarkshire club now be? now sitting ninth after Wednesday’s mauling, Hamilton and inverness Caley Thistle would still gladly swap places with them.

Beyond that, the picture is troubling. Just one clean sheet has been kept in their last 12 matches. it took Jonny Hayes just one minute and 48 seconds to breach them midweek and, without the talismanic Australian Scott Mcdonald at the other end, there was only token resistance thereafter.

it would have been wrong to claim that there were not five goals in the game.

Lasley, however, contends that such a dismal showing was a gross misrepresentation of the side’s true self.

‘if you lose a goal after a couple of minutes in any game it is going to be difficult,’ added Lasley.

‘it is doubly difficult if you lose a goal like that to an Aberdeen team that is on form.

‘it wasn’t in our game plan or how we wanted to start the match, but if we have aims of a top-six place — it seems silly even talking about that just now — we are going to have to keep the ball out of our net better.

‘it was a bad night. it is hard to take and will be until we come to the game on Saturday, which we will be prepared for. i know it is hard saying this in the wake of what happened at Aberdeen but we still feel capable.

‘it might be hard for our fans to listen to that and take, but we still believe in ourselves. We will go away and dust ourselves down and still believe that. We have some big games before the league split and we still feel capable.’

McGhee’s dismissal with the score standing at four-nil was a reminder that just because things are bad they can still get an awful lot worse.

Whatever the Motherwell manager’s dealings with fourth official John McKendrick were, the sight of him mouthing off at fans in the main stand, later laid bare on social media, just was not good.

‘i don’t know what happened there,’ said Lasley. ‘i’m not privy to the exact situation as to what has happened or what was said. The manager will deal with that and i don’t want to comment on that.’ Lasley also pled the fifth when the matter of the dressing-room post-mortem was raised.

On the issue of the handful of fans who’d made a 300-mile round trip to see their team taken apart, though, he was more vocal.

‘We can only apologise,’ he continued. ‘i don’t want to sound patronising because i genuinely mean that from every single squad member.

‘it is not good enough and we know that. The only way we can put it right to repay our fans who came up here is to make sure that, from now until the split, we put on performances that are way better than we showed at Aberdeen. We want to put on displays that we know we are capable of.’

With a trip to Celtic Park tomorrow, McGhee’s men could be forgiven for feeling like the man who survives being hit by the juggernaut only to fall into the path of an oncoming train.

‘it doesn’t get any easier,’ added Lasley. ‘We will prepare properly. What gives us hope is that we have given them a game in recent times. We will back ourselves and we do inside our dressing room. ‘i know how our fans will be feeling right now and i just ask them to stick with us. We believe we can still have a good end to the season.

‘We have given them a game in recent times. it is going to be tough, of course it is.

‘everyone finds it tough there and we are not any different — but that is football and anybody can win on any given

day.’