King Louis goes fourth
Moult goes on a goal spree for Motherwell in Lanarkshire derby – SPFL reports,
WHEN Louis Moult first arrived at Fir Park in June 2015, a Motherwell support renowned for their musical inspirations didn’t take long to come up with an appropriate theme tune for their new striker.
It was an adaptation of the Spandau Ballet classic Gold – changing the title word to Moult, in case you hadn’t guessed – that quickly became the song that echoed round the stands as the former Stoke City man netted 18 goals in his first season.
If his anthem was inspired by Gold, he has already shown this season that to Motherwell, he’s worth his weight in it.
In what was just his fourth game of the campaign – and just his second start – Moult stole the Lanarkshire derby show against Hamilton Academical by grabbing all four goals in his team’s 4-2 victory, including a hat-trick netted in the space of 13 minutes.
“That’s only my second career hat-trick,” admitted Moult. “My last one was against Dartford for Nuneaton a couple of years ago. Let’s hope I can get a few more.
“I’m absolutely buzzing. It just about sunk in there when the boys were signing the match ball and congratulating me. It’s a fantastic start for me but more importantly we’ve beaten our rivals.”
It was an extraordinary game that easily could have finished 7-7 if both teams had taken their chances. But, there is only one place to start. A long punt forward was neatly flicked on by the impressive Ryan Bowman who had dropped in the hole, allowing Moult to run into the space and prod the ball under Remi Matthews after just eight minutes.
Five minutes later he welcomed a gift of a second as Matthews was caught under a deep diagonal cross from Richard Tait. The former Wrexham striker kindly accepted and nodded into the empty net at the back post.
Then, on 21 minutes a scramble in the box wasn’t dealt with by a panic-stricken Hamilton defence, with Moult showing great composure to half volley through a ruck of bodies from the edge of the area. He still wasn’t finished, though, as a landmark fourth arrived just five minutes into the second half. A reverse pass from Scott McDonald played Bowman into the box, who took a tumble over the outstretched leg of Darren Lyon. After a brief chat with Moult, the ball was handed to Bowman before the call was rescinded by manager Mark McGhee, meaning the hero of the day had the chance to slam his spot kick into the top corner.
“I told Ryan to give Louis the ball,” said McGhee. “I’d every confidence that Ryan would score but, whenever he’s on the pitch, Louis takes our penalties.”
They were devoid of any of that in the first 21 minutes as the goals flew in. Yet, and quite bizarrely, this was a game Accies easily could have won. Ali Crawford was once again the most prominent figure in red and white, and it was his bending shot from the edge of the area that clawed the score back to 3-1 and also reignited a flicker of hope as he buried a Rakish Bingham cutback for 4-2.
On top of that, the diminutive forward scudded the post with a free kick before Accies defender Georgios Sarris put the rebound out for a throw-in while standing three yards in front of goal.
Martin Canning’s team then had a Bingham effort scrambled off the line by Ben Heneghan, while Craig Samson pulled off a stunning triple save late on as Accies threw the kitchen sink at it.
“The first 20 minutes killed us,” said Canning. “We didn’t start the game at all and didn’t compete.”