Sensational Ainsworth steals the show as McGhee’s men punish slack County
MARK McGHEE challenged his players to produce a performance and get a result after their midweek horror show against Inverness Caley Thistle when they lost 3-0.
They responded with a beautiful display.
In particular, the Motherwell manager wanted a display from Lionel Ainsworth — and he provided the goods. He set up the opener for Scott McDonald and scored the fourth goal. A Kenny van der Weg own goal and a Richard Tait strike gave them an emphatic victory. Alex Schalk replied late on for ragged Ross County. Alarmingly, Jim McIntyre’s side are now without a win in nine games.
McGhee said: ‘I’m obviously delighted. This was so far away from the second half in midweek. I sensed in training there was an appetite and desire to get back. It was as good as we have played all season.
‘I said to the players in the dressing room that we have bounce-back-ability. It does speak volumes about our character.
‘It was a big game for Lionel. He trains brilliantly but, sometimes, doesn’t give the same in a game. If Lionel plays like that, then he would never be out of the team. We needed him to step up today and he was a real bonus.’
Ainsworth acknowledged: ‘I know I need to show more consistency.’
Motherwell’s defeat to Inverness resulted in them leaving the field to a chorus of boos. That was the third defeat on the trot and the fans crashed through breaking point.
Just 48 hours later, the Well Society Supporters Group gained 76 per cent ownership of the club to give them a powerful say in the boardroom. McGhee and his players knew they had to get their paying customers back onside.
Ainsworth welcomed the news and said: ‘The fans taking control will be good for the club and, if we can keep producing performances like that, they will be happy.’
Motherwell defied recent results to produce a confident and convincing performance. Indeed, at times, it would not be an exaggeration to say they played with a swagger.
Chris Cadden led the way. The young right-sided midfielder gave van der Weg a torrid time. In the eighth minute, the Dutch defender brought down his man with a sliding tackle as he couldn’t cope with his pace.
Ainsworth took the freekick, the cross was met by the head of McDonald and he bulleted his effort past Scott Fox from eight yards. The Australian striker should have scored again moments later but he screwed his shot wide.
There was good fortune involved when the hosts doubled their advantage on the half hour. Moult dribbled inside the box to get to the dead-ball line. His cutback was intercepted by van der Weg and all he could do was put the ball past Fox from four yards.
County, to be fair, didn’t roll over and tried to get back into the game. Paul Quinn came close with a header and a blistering drive from Ian McShane whistled past Craig Samson’s right-hand post. They caused problems all afternoon but it was their defending that let them down during the 90 minutes. They were susceptible to the counter-attack and were exposed again in the 51st minute when Tait rampaged down the right and unleashed a shot from 14 yards. It looked as though Fox should have saved it.
The goal of the game came in the 62nd minute. Ainsworth received a pass from McDonald to gain possession inside the area. He showed wonderful close control to dribble past two defenders and then round Fox to take the ball all the way to the goal line, and then he slammed it home. He was quite right to take a rapturous applause from the Fir Park crowd.
But credit to County. They never gave up and scored a cracker of their own in the 78th minute. Substitute Schalk caught a cross ball sweetly on the volley from 17 yards and his low, tasty drive sizzled past Samson. Under different circumstances, the goal would have lived long in the memory but consolation goals are quickly forgotten about.
A dejected McIntyre said: ‘We conceded a free-kick and it was as basic as man-for-man marking — and we don’t do our jobs. That gave Motherwell the confidence for the next 15-20 minutes.
‘Motherwell get another two goals from our attacks when our final pass could have been better, they break on us and we don’t defend it properly.
‘The players are working hard but we are not giving ourselves a chance because of the errors we are making.
‘But we will stick together. We know we have good players. We can turn it around. We need to do the fundamentals far better.
‘If you can put two or three results together, you can certainly climb the table.
‘But, in order to do that, we need to get back to basics and stop making these errors that are hurting the confidence levels.’