Motherwell snatch draw after ‘crazy’ decision
SCOTT McDONALD insists that snatching a late equaliser for Motherwell proved no consolation for having a perfectly legitimate goal chalked off earlier in the second half.
The Australian, who started off in the left-sided role he filled so well in last weekend’s 4-2 win over Hamilton, was moved into the centre following an appalling opening period from the Fir Park side and cancelled out Chris Erskine’s opener with just seven minutes left to play.
However, he is still smarting over having a 64th-minute effort disallowed when nodding home from a Ben Heneghan header across goal only for linesman Alan Mulvanny to raise his flag.
Asked about the late goal easing the disappointment, he replied: ‘It never does make up for it. You cannot say you would have won, but it (the earlier goal) would have put us more on the front foot.
‘We have looked at it again and I have not been offside at one bit of it, which is kind of crazy. It is incredible.
‘We rode our luck a bit and they missed a few chances to kill off the game, but it is the sign of a good team that we kept going.’
Partick did, indeed, have plenty of opportunities and most of them fell to centreforward Ade Azeez, whose profligacy is becoming a worry for the home support.
Thistle took the lead on 31 minutes when Erskine moved on to an inexplicable pass across his own box from Stevie Hammell and slotted the ball past keeper Craig Samson.
Erskine then sent Azeez clean through with a great ball on 51 minutes and he should have done much better than sclaff a poor shot past Samson’s left-hand post.
He blazed wide 10 minutes later after being sent clear by debutant Adam Barton and also saw a later effort saved with Ryan Edwards rattling the post with a terrific 30-yard drive on 76 minutes.
McDonald swapped positions with Louis Moult, who missed training all week as a result of tweaking his hamstring when standing on a child’s toy, and pulled the visitors level when moving onto a fantastic cross from the right from Richard Tait and glancing home a beautiful header.
‘If we had taken the chance after half-time, the game is dead and buried,’ said Thistle manager Alan Archibald. ‘Ade probably needs one to bounce in off his knee because everything else is there.
‘We didn’t get a penalty either when Ade is fouled and doesn’t go down. We need to get that into his game. We’re not telling him to dive, but to go down when there is contact.’
Motherwell could even have snatched it in the dying moments when seeing a Ryan Bowman header saved by Ryan Scully, who then dived full-length to touch a Chris Cadden shot wide.
‘Given the first-half performance, I think we will settle for the draw,’ said Motherwell manager Mark McGhee.
‘We lost a really disappointing goal, but Hammy doesn’t make those sort of mistakes and we will forgive him for that.’