DUNDEE UTD:
(4-4-2): Siegrist 6; Smith 6, Edwards 8, Reynolds (C) 7, Robson 7; Pawlett 4, Butcher 7, Fuchs 6, Sporle 7 (Harkes 34, 7); Appere 7 (Mcnulty 77, 4), Shankland 9. Subs not used – Deniz (GK), Connolly, Clark, Hoti, Bolton, Mochrie and Neilson.
(4-2-3-1): Stryjek 5; Devlin 5; Fitzwater 4, Guthrie 5, Serrano 5; Bartley (C) 5 (Lawson 71, 4), Holt 5; Mullin 6, Pittman 6 (Poplatnik 64, 4), Sibbald 6 (Kabia 64, 3); Robinson 3 (Emmanuel-thomas 5). Subs not used – Mccrorie (GK), Mcmillan, Taylor-sinclair, Ambrose and Forrest.
Graham Alexander says Motherwell will appeal Stephen O’donnell’s red card, should video analysis support their suspicion they were harshly dealt with.
The Fir Park outfit’s manager was himself sent to the stand during the 4-1 loss to Hamilton Accies after picking up successive yellow cards from ref David Munro.
However, while he was prepared to put his own punishment down to experience, he was reserving the right to take action on his player’s behalf.
“I haven’t seen Stephen’s red card back yet, I only saw it live and thought it was a harsh decision then.
“If we feel the same after viewing back, then I would like to appeal,” he said.
“We have given a penalty away and got a red card, they have given away a penalty and it is not even a yellow.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but we can feel a little bit unjustly dealt with on that.
“Stephen apologised to me as he came off for getting sent off, but, as I say, I have not seen it myself.
“He is a top pro who has been brilliant for us.
“I’ll have to look at it again, but if it’s a penalty it’s a penalty. But I didn’t see it as a blatant professional foul.”
Motherwell’s defeat extended their miserable run in the Lanarkshire derby this season, making it three losses from three.
And despite his disquiet about losing his player to a red, Alexander insisted he was not looking to make excuses.
“We can’t just point to any one person as the reason we got beat,” he said.
“We have to understand that we didn’t do things right from the first five or 10 minutes and that gave the opposition something to build upon
“The first half came as a shock to us, and the first goal definitely.
“It was almost the complete reverse of what we’ve been doing over the past few games.
“We got going in the second half when we showed a little bit of character we had asked them to, but it was too late by then.
“When we analysed it with the players on Friday we showed how well we’d defended.
“On Monday we’ll ask them the questions and they’ll know the answers because they’ve seen it – and they’ll know what went wrong.
“The biggest thing in football is putting the knowledge into pressure situations and today we were found wanting.
“In the first 15-20 minutes, we made poor decisions. If we’d defended the way we have in previous games, they wouldn’t have scored that first goal, so it’s back to the training pitch and work as hard.”