FIR PARK is not the first thing that pops into your head when you ponder the concepts and philosophies of ancient Chinese culture. Well, unless you’re taking about the chow mein at the world buffet in the shadows of the Davie Cooper Stand.
Yet the concept of Yin and Yang was not an alien proposition to the 4000-odd who struggled their way through this one. The basic principle states that opposites, such as male and female, dark and light, are inseparable. If you have one, then you’ll soon sample the next.
Therefore, I give you this snoozefest between Motherwell and Aberdeen on a grey Sunday afternoon.
The two teams of course met at the same venue on Thursday in the Betfred Cup quarter-finals, an encounter which pulsated with frenetic play, flashes of real quality, dollops of calamity and three goals all to whet the appetite. In contrast, this 1-0 win for Aberdeen, their first victory for a month, was, well, not that.
It was eventually won thanks to an Andrew Considine goal on 56 minutes to break the monotony of midfield battles, headers back and forward and a seemingly endless stream of throw ins. It did deliver a bit of a response from their hosts who ran out 3-0 winners on Thursday, but not enough to salvage a draw they probably just about merited.
“It wasn’t perfect or polished or a performance full of any subtlety but it was the type of display that was needed,” said Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager. “We needed to right a few wrongs from the other night.
“We were set up better to deal with the threat of Motherwell. I have been hugely impressed by Motherwell who ask questions of you. I said it was a simplistic approach but that is not disparaging.
“They cause teams a lot of problems as we found out on Thursday. The best players were in a Motherwell shirt on Thursday but the best players were in Aberdeen shirts today.
“We set up with a team which was the anti-dote to what we were facing. The win was no more than we deserved.”
For all the poor play in this one, the goal was a brief breath of fresh air. However, it also had a whiff of the scrappy about it. A low, whipped ball into the box from Shay Logan on the right was flicked on by Stevie May to Ryan Christie, who then sent a backheel flick arrowing towards the bottom corner from six yards. Motherwell keeper Trevor Carson did well to push it on to his left post, but Considine was the first in a ruck of bodies to bundle it into the net in front of just under 1000 Aberdeen fans.
The truth was this was one of few chances created by either team over the course of this one that eventually sent Aberdeen clear of St Johnstone in second place. By McInnes’ own admission, he had to adapt his team’s style of play after Thursday night and it most certainly worked.
Twenty-year-old defender Scott McKenna was thrown in to offer more physicality and presence at the back for Aberdeen, particularly on the left side to nullify the pace and power of Chris Cadden. He did superbly well. In the middle of the park, Kenny McLean, Greg Tansey and Kari Arnason added combative edge to rival Motherwell duo of Carl McHugh and Allan Campbell.
The hosts had it all their own way on Thursday but this was a much more frustrating affair for Stephen Robinson’s side who missed the chance to above Rangers and Hibernian into fourth place.
While neither keeper had much to do, Joe Lewis in the Aberdeen goal was particularly quiet compared to the three soft goals he conceded just three days earlier. In the first half Peter Hartley dragged a shot just wide of the far post, while in the second half Lewis did well to react quickly to parry Chris Cadden’s solid drive from the edge of the box around the post. There were late shouts from Motherwell for a penalty with Louis Moult going down after a nudge from Shay Logan and Anthony O’Connor when contesting a high ball, but referee Nick Walsh said no.
Motherwell would have preferred to have won on Thursday if given the choice, but Robinson was pleased with the application of his players in the face of an Aberdeen team that were forced to change their own style of play to deal with the Lanarkshire side.
“I can't fault my players at all,” said the Motherwell manager “They are the fittest bunch of boys I have ever worked with, they continue to keep going and do the right things time and time again and I'm extremely proud of them.
“I thought we deserved a minimum of a point out of that game, and it probably shows how far we have come that they are celebrating and banging doors. And fair play to them, they have won the game and come and won the game and stood up to us.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel