Wasteful Well have it all to do
Lack of cutting edge and injury list hamper safety bid
Motherwell ...............1 St Johnstone .............2
Michael Temlett at Fir Park Stephen Robinson knows his Motherwell side will have to do things the hard way.
If the Steelmen want to ensure survival they will need to start taking chances, as missed opportunities cost Well dear on Saturday.
Robinson’s first game as manager ended in a 2-1 defeat as Liam Craig’s double cancelled out Scott McDonald’s first half equaliser.
The Northern Irishman also knows he faces a tough task with injuries to Stephen McManus and Zak Jules making his task even harder.
With Motherwell sitting three points above Inverness in the play-off places, Robinson said: “We created numerous chances and some I’m still wondering how we missed them.
“There were two penalty-kicks, one was an incredible decision on Chris Cadden.
“On another day, we could have had four or five and it wouldn’t have been a bad scoreline because I thought we dominated a large part of the game.
“We took the game to them and we were positive. There was no fear.
“We’ll look at it game by game and we’re aiming to try and win every game we play in.
“Zak is going to be out for a couple of weeks which is another concern for us but we’ll deal with it. This was a Well side on a mission and they looked far more organised and disciplined. “Ben Heneghan will be back from suspension and we’re pushing Richard Tait, who has only just had his operation. “As a football club, we give young boys chances, so we push young players forward but they’ll make mistakes. “It ’ s very doubtful Stephen (McManus) will play again this season.” The Robinson era started with a hitch, as Well found themselves one down after eight minutes. Liam Craig slipped his marker with ease and headed home from six yards to give the Steelmen a mountain to climb. It could have been made slightly easier on 16 minutes when Scott McDonald looked to have been dragged down in the box by Brian Easton but referee Greg Aitken waved away the claims. Motherwell started to grow into the game as the half hour mark passed and three minutes before half time they should have been level as McDonald had one of the worst misses seen all season. He played a neat one two with Louis Moult, who had a shot saved by Saints keeper Zander Clark — but as the ball fell into the path of McDonald, he somehow fired over from three yards out. Motherwell have the second poorest home record in Scottish football — only League Two bottom side Cowdenbeath are worse. Too many glorious opportunites were passed up by Well. They have to take them to stay up.
Two minutes later, however, the Australian made amends as he levelled the match.
A goalmouth scramble after Craig Clay’s shot culminated in McDonald bundling the ball over the line and the teams going in level at the break.
Motherwell came out every bit as energetic in the second half as Jules and Moult went close.
It was to be Jules’ last involvement as he now looks set to miss the next couple of games with concussion.
But for all the pressure, it was the Saints who scored next as Craig bagged his second.
A Danny Swanson cross was misjudged by David Ferguson and Craig was waiting to volley the ball sweetly into the bottom corner and snatch the three points. Celtic Aberdeen Rangers St Johnstone Hearts Partick Thistle Kilmarnock Dundee Ross County MOTHERWELL Inverness CT Hamilton PWDL 29 27 2 0 29 18 4 7 29 14 8 7 29 12 7 10 29 11 8 10 29 8 10 11 29 7 11 11 29 8 6 15 29 6 10 13 29 7 6 16 29 4 12 13 29 4 12 13 Pts 83 58 50 43 41 34 32 30 28 27 24 24
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