McDonald snatches Steelmen equaliser
PARTICK THISTLE 1 Errskine (31)
MOTHERWELL 1 McDonald (83)
You could argue the outcome of this game was settled by a child’s soft toy!
Motherwell boss Mark McGhee revealed that striker Louis Moult was replaced with 20 minutes to go because he was suffering fatigue.
The man who hit four goals against Hamilton Accies last weekend hadn’t trained all week after hurting his hamstring standing on one of his kid’s toys at home.
His substitution led to a change in the Fir Parkers formation – Scott McDonald was pushed up front and produced a goal that earned the Steelmen a draw.
He could easily have won the match for his team but a linesman wrongly ruled a good goal offside before the effort that was allowed to stand.
McGhee admitted he is having a problem fitting Moult, McDonald and Ryan Bowman into his side.
He said: “Maybe there will be days when actually only two of them can play and one comes off the bench.
“Louis only came off because he was tired after not training – he’d passed a fitness test.
“He’s in form, he’s confident and we felt he should play.
“We weren’t up to speed in the first half but the second was much, much better.
“We got an equaliser and actually scored two goals because Scott McDonald had one that was clearly onside.”
The Aussie striker was frustrated not to have bagged a headed double.
A finish from a perfect Tait cross counted but so should an earlier effort from a Heneghan nod back.
McDonald said: “I wasn’t offside one bit. It’s
kind of crazy but it’s one of these things. I could see the last defender all the way and I actually go away from goal to get on to the cross.”
The 33- year- old had no complaint about spending most of the game in midfield.
He went on: “I put the team first. I’m at the age where I still want goals but I’m not selfish about it.
“I think maybe Louis Moult has taken that mantle.
“I’ve played in midfield several times and it shows that I learned things during my time away from the club.”
McDonald’s goal went some way to bail out team-mate Stevie Hammell.
Hammell will be kicking himself all week about the blunder that let Thistle open the scoring.
He played a disastrous pass across the penalty area and Chris Erskine was on to it in a flash. The attacker calmly slid the ball under the advancing Samson.
The sight of Hammell with his head in his hands said it all – he had to take the blame.
Having gone ahead, Partick Thistle should really have killed the game off.
They had several chances to score and most of them fell to marauding frontman Ade Azeez.
He was straight through on goal just after half-time but sent his effort agonisingly wide of the target.
There was also a decent claim for a penalty when he was impeded during another charge forward.
The Englishman has yet to score a league goal and Jags’ boss Alan Archibald believes even a scruffy finish would do wonders for his confidence.
Archibald said: “He probably just needs one to bounce off his knee and go in because he has everything else in his game.
“We created a number of chances but at the moment it looks like we have to score two goals to win a game.”