Alan Cochrane @ Fir Park
By an act of grand larceny Kilmarnock somehow managed to gain all three points in a game that Motherwell almost completely dominated, and when Rhian Dodds kicked in Motherwell's back door in the 93rd minute, you had to have some sympathy for the stadium announcer who credited the goal to Dick Turpin. While Kilmarnock ploutered and guddled on a saturated pitch, Motherwell were sharper, more direct and incisive, and had enough chances to win three games. Killie on the other hand had three goal-scoring chances, and converted two of them.
Motherwell took the lead midway through the first half when Ryan O'Leary and Jamie Hamill got confused in their own half, David Clarkson stepped smartly in, ran in on goal and smacked a low shot past the advancing Alan Combe. A couple of minutes later, Jim Paterson almost doubled the lead with a free kick from outside the box that fizzed just outside Combe's left hand post, much to the keeper's relief. In fact, Motherwell squandered chance after chance, while Killie only had a Nish header from a Willie Gibson cross going wide, to show for their first 45 minutes.
The second half started no better for Kilmarnock, with Motherwell ripping the defence apart, and pulling players out of position at will. Jim Jefferies put up with it for precisely eight minutes before replacing Fernandez and Gibson with Locke and Wales. The centre of the pitch, in front of the back four, had been where Kilmarnock were losing out badly, and Gary Locke was immediately there to stem the haemorrhage. The substitution worked better than the manager could have hoped, because 5 minutes after coming on, Locke smacked a corner to the back post, and David Lilley met it with a thundering header that gave Graeme Smith no chance.
It took Motherwell 10 minutes to recover from the shock, but they were soon back round Alan Combe's goal, and doing everything except get the ball into the net. Right on 90 minutes, they did get it in, but referee Stuart Dougal immediately disallowed it for an earlier two handed push on the keeper. Then we had the burglary. Gary Wales broke away, passed down the left to Dodds, who sprinted in and beat Smith with a low drive. There was barely time to restart the game.
Jim's first words to the assembled press? "I thought we were absolutely fantastic." He was first to lead the laughter. He had told Mark McGhee at the end of the game that Motherwell deserved to win today. At half time, he thought we were lucky only to be one behind, and had to change it then. Gary Locke made a big difference, but a draw was the most he was expecting. Resilience, and a bit of luck, had given us more than we deserved, but the better team doesn't always win. As he said, that's two wins and a draw and we haven't played that well yet; just wait until we do.
Motherwell: Smith, Quinn, Paterson, Reynolds, Craigan, Fitzpatrick, Lasley, McGarry (McCormack), O'Donnell, Porter (Smith), Clarkson
Kilmarnock: Combe, Lilley, Wright, Ford, Naismith, Nish, Gibson (Wales), Johnston (Dodds), Fernandez (Locke) O'Leary, Hamill
Referee: Brian Stuart Dougal
