Rueful Well boss refuses to point the finger
Stephen Robinson admitted his side could have played for 20 days without scoring against Aberdeen.
But the Motherwell boss refused to be critical of his men after they went down 3-0.
The Fir Park side are still ahead of the Dons in third place, although their lead has been cut to just one point.
Robinson said: “Key moments in the game went against us.
“We dominated the first half and missed a penalty at a crucial time
“That gave them a lift, and they took advantage when we were down to 10men.
“Peter Hartley was off being assessed, then Barry Maguire went to centre-half and made a poor decision.
“Allan Campbell was caught for the second goal but you look at the Aberdeen team and there wasn’t too many lacking experience out there for Aberdeen.
“We could have been playing for the next 20 days and not scored. It was one of those games.
“We had very young boys who made individual errors but they will learn from it.”
Robinson appeared to concede that Derek McInnes produced a tactical formation that wasn’t too adventurous but proved very effective.
The visitors had a side packed with defenders because they were unable to use midfielders Lewis Ferguson, Craig Bryson, Scott Wright and Funso Ojo because of injury and suspension.
Robinson added: “Aberdeen picked the strongest side they possibly could and as soon as they went 1-0 up theysatin.
“Make no mistake, Aberdeen are a very good side.
“We haven’t lambasted our lads. We’ll just get on with it and keep doing whatwedo.
“We had boys who looked 5% and 10% down after coming back from international duty.
“We will live and learn from it. We’re still sitting in third place.”
Robinson was forced to replace defender Peter Hartley with Bevis Mugabi after a James Wilson shot hit the Englishman on the head.
The manager reported that Hartley was fine after the game but medical advice had been to take him off.
Aberdeen midfielder Jon Gallagher maintain there’s no chance of the Granite City men getting carried away with yesterday’s win.
He said: “We’re all pretty happy with the performance but you don’t want to celebrate too much.
“We have to make sure we build on this.
“I thought Greg Leigh and Zak Vyner were excellent in midfield and looked like they’d been playing there for years.”