If any Motherwell fans felt that their players didn’t care about their current predicament as they trudged despondently out of Firhill following Tuesday night’s last-gasp defeat to Partick Thistle, then a moment in the company of a shattered Lionel Ainsworth would have firmly dispelled those thoughts once and for all.
Sent to face the press after shouldering the burden of blame for the defeat, Ainsworth was visibly upset, breaking down in tears as he took the full responsibility for the home side’s devastating late winner on the chin.
With the game goalless as the clock ticked over into added time, the substitute failed to react to a headed clearance from Stephen McManus that landed at the feet of Stevie Lawless. By the time the Motherwell winger realised what was happening, the ball was in the back of the net via a deflection off the thigh of the unfortunate Josh Law.
Upon reflection, it was hard not to feel that Ainsworth had perhaps been unfairly singled out, with his momentary lapse coming as it did after a ninety minutes where his teammates and manager hardly covered themselves in glory either. Where others got away with their dereliction of duty though, Ainsworth was brutally punished, and to be fair to him, at a moment when he must have wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole, he bravely refused to look for a hiding place.
He said: “I feel sick for the boys because I’ve cost us the game.
“Ultimately I have lost us it. There were a few harsh words in there but I have to take it all on-board, have a word with the other boys and apologise.
“I have got to do my job better. My positioning could have been better and awareness of my man around me.
“I’ve got to concentrate – I’ve got to do better. It’s nothing to do with me coming on late in the game because the manager has put his trust in me and I have gone and lost it for us.
“I definitely care about what happened. I don’t want to be in the same situation as last season, that was a tough situation and at the moment we are in it again.
“So I have listened to the manager and all the senior pros and I have taken it on-board.
“It’s horrible and I feel sick. It’s football and it happens. If I was a couple of yards further back then we don’t lose the game. Ultimately I have to have a look at myself and that’s what I’ll do.
“If it had finished 0-0 it might not have been a bad point but it’s sickening. I’m passionate, and as you can see, I’m distraught.
“I’ve just got to put myself between the man and the goal – I’ve just got to be better and be more aware.
“We could have salvaged it at the end but we didn’t, did we?
“I’ve got to look within myself. I have to take responsibility fully. People were saying things in the dressing room and that’s right.
“I shook their hands and said thank you because it’s made me learn.”
In these situations, the one crumb of comfort extended to a footballer is usually the promise that in our hectic fixture calendar, a chance of redemption is never any more than a few days away.
A Scottish Cup tie against holders Inverness awaits Ainsworth and his teammates on Saturday, but even that prospect held little solace for the clearly gutted winger.
“People say ‘oh there’s a game next week’ but when you’re a footballer you get highs and lows and this is definitely a low,” he said.
“In a way we would prefer if the next match was a league game, especially with the position we are in. But hopefully we can put in a good performance against Inverness in the cup and get a win there and then look to the league the week after.
“I’ve got to go again, stick in there and try to get back in next week. I went home after the game and I was so angry but I will be back into training and I will work my a*se off.”
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 here