Motherwell show steel to ease relegation fears
MOTHERWELL had won only one of their previous 10 home games, a sequence stretching back to October, but they pulled victory out of the bag when it mattered most to ease their relegation concerns.
They are now nine points clear of second-bottom Hamilton and six ahead of tenth-placed Ross County with only six fixtures remaining.
Livingston, by contrast, appear to have imploded. They have now gone six matches without a win, losing five of them, and the Betfred Cup finalists contributed hugely to their downfall here.
Manager David Martindale was unimpressed with the way his back four failed to contain the home side, especially when they had hauled themselves back into the contest.
‘At 2-1, the momentum had swung our way but you will never win games the way we defended,’ he said.
‘I don’t think Matej Poplatnik had to jump in for the penalty and, at the second goal, we never cleared our lines properly.
‘The third one I don’t know why we cleared it to our left — it was Keystone Cops a wee bit. Our defending has to be better and, as a squad, the last four or five games haven’t been good enough.
‘This is the same group who went 14 games unbeaten with 10 clean sheets and it looks like we would struggle to keep a clean sheet right now.
‘The boys have to find that inner confidence and quickly. We need to defend our box better and do the basics better.
‘People talk about three games in seven days but that’s disrespectful to Motherwell. I think I made enough changes to make sure we had enough energy in the midfield areas to get us up the park.
‘You look at the scoreline but I don’t think Robby McCrorie had a lot to do and that’s disappointing when we lost three goals. They didn’t have a lot of shots on our goal, but we weren’t much better. We didn’t do enough.’
The hosts were first out of the traps and McCrorie made two fine saves in the second minute.
First he rescued Jack Fitzwater with an outstretched leg after the defender’s weak headed passback allowed Tony Watt a strike at goal and then he threw himself to his left to beat away a venomous drive from Stephen O’Donnell at his near post.
Watt could easily have been awarded a penalty less than a minute later when he hit the turf following a mistimed tackle by Aaron Taylor-Sinclair; referee Colin Steven, however, did not want to know.
The former Celtic and Scotland striker required treatment after that challenge and tried to play on but had to admit defeat midway through the first half.
Livingston had just begun to think that they had weathered the worst of that early storm when Slovenian striker Poplatnik, making his first start since December, foolishly shoved Robbie Crawford to the ground when there was no apparent danger.
Referee Steven had no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot. McCrorie moved to his left but Devante Cole smashed it down the middle.
Livingston responded to going behind by taking the game to the hosts. Liam Kelly saved well from a Poplatnik diving header and a Josh Mullin free-kick hit the top of the crossbar.
Motherwell appeared to have put themselves in the driving seat in 59 minutes when Barry Maguire teed up Cole to drive low behind McCrorie from 15 yards but they displayed a lack of professionalism — and organisation — by allowing the Lions to reduce the leeway straight from the kick-off.
Mullin’s free-kick was flicked on by Jon Guthrie and Fitzwater got down low to nod the ball behind Kelly.
The two-goal cushion was soon restored on the break, however, when Cole released substitute Chris Long and he drew McCrorie from his line before stroking the ball behind him from 12 yards.
Home boss Graham Alexander was delighted with the result and with his players’ performance.
‘Once we scored a third we were reasonably safe but that was only because of the way we approached the game’ he claimed.
‘I’m delighted for the players. I don’t think there is a secret to Devante Cole’s scoring streak other than he’s a really good player.
‘We have a way of treating people and I think he’s responded well. I don’t know how he’s been treated in the past, I can’t really put my finger on that.
‘We put him in good areas and we try to keep round pegs in round holes, and Cole’s a good striker.
‘The challenge we’ve had is consistency — we’re capable of picking up really good results but it’s not been over a prolonged period. This is the first time for over a year we’ve gone three games undefeated and that needs addressing’
MOTHERWELL (4-3-3): Kelly; O’Donnell, Magloire, Lamie, Carroll; Campbell, Maguire, Crawford; Roberts (McGinley 90), Cole, Watt (Long 23) (Gallagher 86). Subs (not used): Morrison, Hastie, Lawless, Polworth, Devine, Cornelius. Booked: O’Donnell, Long. LIVINGSTON (4-4-2): McCrorie; Devlin, Guthrie, Fitzwater, Taylor-Sinclair (Forrest 56); Mullin, Lawson (Pittman 56), Bartley (Tiffoney 72), Sibbald; Poplatnik, Serrano. Subs (not used): Stryjek, Holt, McMillan, Longridge, Ambrose, Kabia. Booked: Bartley, Guthrie, Sibbald, Devlin.
Referee: Colin Steven.