The trip north for Motherwell through the snow-swept hills of the Cairngorms offered a picturesque backdrop for this game with Ross County. The Lanarkshire team’s outlook on the way back down the road in the darkness was much bleaker, however, after this 3-0 defeat left them staring ominously towards a long, season which is already threatening to stretch out in front of them into the distance.
The Fir Park club spent the majority of their last crusade both worryingly glancing over their shoulder while occasionally peering upwards in hope that one of the sides above them would falter. Ultimately it ended positively with a Premiership play-off win that put some sort of gloss on what was one of the patchiest seasons for over a decade.
Fifteen games into this one and the cracks are already beginning to appear for the 180 Motherwell fans who followed their team up the A9 as Craig Curran, Tony Dingwall and Liam Boyce heaped on the misery. A poor jaunt north was compounded by the news elsewhere that other results mean they have now dropped to second bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership, a reality Mark McGhee was not prepared to shy away from.
“I don’t think we needed a warning,” said the Motherwell manager of his team dropping to 11th. “We are thinking no other way than we are in a dogfight until we are out of it. There’s no illusions over the work we have to do.
“Maybe 3-0 was harsh on us but I thought they deserved to beat us. We were poor.”
It was a loss for Motherwell that was a far cry from the maulings this time a year ago which dragged them down the Premiership table at an alarming rate. Having said that, it cannot be ignored that this defeat in Dingwall, their second reverse in a row now, demonstrated the deficiencies that have blighted any sort of attempt to get back to the team that was such a dynamic unit under Stuart McCall.
Granted, a host of injuries did not help their cause in the Highlands as Stevie Hammell, Stephen McManus and Keith Lasley all missed out to name a few. But when in possession they simply did not do enough with it pose Ross County problems or move the ball quickly, while their defensive frailties when without the ball regularly saw their hosts given time to execute their game plan.
For County’s first on 22 minutes, Motherwell’s midfield failed to cut out a cross-field ball, Josh Law allowed Martin Woods time to swing in a cross, and the defence didn’t get close to Curran as he swung his right boot at the ball to send it flying over his shoulder and into the top corner from 12 yards. The second blow that struck McGhee’s team saw Dingwall dance straight through the middle of his team’s defence before hurdling diving keeper Connor Ripley. By the time Boyce was tugged in the box by Kieran Kennedy to allow him to convert from the spot, the game was already gone.
“It was just important we got back to winning ways today,” said Jim McIntyre, the Ross County manager whose team ended a two-game losing run to remain fifth in the table. “I felt we had to grind it until we got the first goal, I thought we won most of our individual battles and that set us up for the victory.”
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