County pay for two minutes of madness
LOUIS MOULT came off the bench to rescue a point for Motherwell in a game which only came to life in the last half hour.
Moult made a dramatic return from injury and he had no hesitation in taking the spotkick after being on the park for a matter of minutes.
County looked to be on their way to all three points after Liam Boyce had broken the deadlock just after the hour mark with a sweet finish for his sixth goal of the season.
But two moments of madness in the space of as many minutes got Motherwell right back into the match.
Scott Fox brought down Scott McDonald in the box and Moult stuck away the spot-kick, then County went down to 10 men after Jay McEveley was sent off after he picked up his second yellow card of the game.
County boss Jim McIntyre felt his side would go on to take all three points.
He said :“I thought we were the team who looked like going on to win the match. The sending off was obviously the pivotal moment.
“Unfortunately for us we made a poor decision, lost a man and that made it a bit of an uphill task for us.”
McIntyre reserved judgement on the spotkick award, adding: “I’ve not seen the penalty again. From where I was, it looked like there might have been contact, but until I see it clearly, it was hard to tell .”
Defences were very much on top in a scrappy first-half. The nearest County came
to a goal was a curling effort from Michael Gardyne in the 37th minute which crashed off the crossbar.
The match came to life after the break and after a good spell of pressure County took the lead when the hard-working Alex Schalk set up Boyce for a clinical finish into the bottom corner.
Schalk had the ball in the net a couple of minutes later after Craig Samson parried a Boyce shot but the Dutchman was narrowly offside.
County got the break they had been waiting for in the 67th minute when McDonald was wiped out in the box by Fox and Moult made no mistake from close range.
County would still have fancied themselves to get themselves ahead again but McEveley was binned after making his second rash tackle of the afternoon.
Not unsurprisingly, Motherwell had the better of the chances before the end.
Sub Lionel Ainsworth forced a fine save from Fox then McDonald tested the keeper with a snap shot but the 10 men held out for a point.
Motherwell boss Mark McGhee said: “It was a fairly even game. I think it was a fair result, either team could have won it.”
However, he had a special word for his goalscorer, adding: “Louie had an operation in the summer but he played a couple of League Cup games before that and scored two goals.
“But this is his first league outing. He was our top goalscorer last year.
“We went to Ibrox without him and got beat in the last minute and drew at 0-0 at home to Dundee. Maybe if Louie had played in those two games we may have got more out of them.
“And maybe wouldn’t have got a point today if Louie had not being playing.”