DEMOLITION DERBY

Mark O’Hara admits making his Motherwell comeback from a concussion injury and scoring a penalty was no consolation as they suffered a hammering at home to Hamilton Accies.

The midfielder displayed his impressive versatility in the Lanarkshire derby defeat on his full return from a serious concussion injury and it was the 25 year-old’s first start under new boss Graham Alexander after five weeks out.

He played in four different positions during a disastrous 90 minutes after Stephen O’Donnell’s early red card.

But he revealed it was impossible to feel any satisfaction after Saturday.

O’Hara said: “It’s obviously been a really tough time for me. I always try to help out the team when I can.

“It was unusual circumstances and I had to move into different positions to do what was best for the team. I missed five weeks with my concussion. I only came back to training the day before the Celtic game, so I’m only officially back for one week.

“You sometimes take consolation from scoring a goal, but I definitely didn’t in this game.

“It won’t be remembered at all and hopefully next time I score it will be in happier circumstances.”

The former Dundee star netted from the penalty spot in the second half after Brian Easton was adjudged to have fouled Devante Cole.

It was O’Hara’s fourth goal of the season, but he apologised to fans for the manner of the defeat that draws them back into a survival fight.

He added:“I can only apologise to the supporters for the first half performance but we can’t dwell on it. We are under no illusions that we need to get ourselves out of danger and we’ve got a big game now.

“Everybody is hurting. There’s been a feeling of positivity around the place recently and I think this completely contradicted that.”

Motherwell entered the derby in good form with three wins from the last four games and confidence was high in the camp. They have the chance to make amends on Saturday when they host St Johnstone.

‘Well could move above their opponents with a win and O’Hara insists that will be the focus.

He said: “We’ve got a good run of games coming up and we will need to target climbing up the table.

We’ve got some massive games coming up.

“This is a really big game because it gives us the chance to go ahead of them.

“We’ll work really hard this week and hopefully put things right.”