Moult the star as Steelmen steamroller Killie
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
during the opening 45, there was no question as to who were the better side in the second half.
Mother well simply steamrollered Killie after the break and the only surprise once the dust settled was that Killie’s goal difference wasn’t significantly worse by full time.
They mainly have Jamie MacDonald to thank for that.
The former Hearts keeper was in blinding form, twice denying Moult with acrobatic stops while the striker also sent an angled volley narrowly wide.
However, Moult finally got the goal he craved two minutes from time.
Iain Wilson fouled Bowman as he was about to convert Chris Cadden’s cross and Moult sent MacDonald the wrong way from the penalty spot.
These are worrying times for Killie manager Lee McCulloch, whose side have taken just one point from 15 thus far and they slumped to secondbottom on goal difference.
“Motherwell probably deserved the three points and we didn’t,” he said.
“The second-half performance really wasn’t good enough.”
WELL:
(3-5-2) Carson 6, Kipre 7, Hartley 6 (Grimshaw 75, 5), Dunne 6 (Hammell 46, 6), Cadden 6, McHugh 6, Rose 5 (Bigirimana 58, 6), Campbell 6, Tait 7,Moult 8, Bowman 7. Subs Griffiths, Fisher, Newell, Tanner. McHugh.
KILLIE: (4-4-1-1): MacDonald 6, O’Donnell 6, Greer 6 (Broadfoot 46, 5), Findlay 5, Taylor 6, Burke 5 (Jones 52,5), Wilson 5, Smith 5, Thomas 6, Brophy 5, (Frizzell 71, 5), Erwin 5. Subs: Bell, Power, Waters, Samizadeh.