Moult the star as Steelmen

MOTHERWELL’S impressive early season form continued with this convincing victory, their eighth in 10 matches.

This was their third successive league win – their best sequence since April of last year – and, with Aberdeen due at Fir Park in the quarter-finals of the Betfred Cup on Thursday, the timing couldn’t have been better.

Manager Stephen Robinson is a hard man to please but his players were in no danger of the hairdryer treatment from the Irishman on this occasion.

“I thought we dominated the whole game,” he claimed.

“Our decision-making in the first half wasn’t as good, though – I was trying to get them to be a little more patient and make that extra pass because we were hitting too many diagonal balls.

“But we corrected that at half-time and our subs made a big impact.

“We had so much possession but we needed a little more quality to dictate the game and, fair play to my players, there was no question about their commitment or desire.

“They were winning all the second balls but we added quality to that in the second half.”

Both teams were up for it from the get-go.

Ryan Bowman couldn’t quite make sufficient contact with his diving header from Louis Moult’s cross while Trevor Carson reacted impressively to keep out Eamonn Brophy’s shot from point-blank range after Dom Thomas had shredded Motherwell’s right flank.

Cedric Kipre was harshly booked for a solid tackle on Greg Taylor before Killie came close as Gordon Greer’s header from Thomas’s corner came back off the bar.

Then Moult completely miss-hit a free shot after Bowman had rolled the ball into his path 15 yards out.

If honours were even