FORMER British Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s quote ‘a week is a long time in politics’ may be true, but the late Labour man can’t hold a candle to what it must have been like for Motherwell’s suffering squad over a torturous seven days.
The reason for the protracted feeling conveyed over their regime is as predictable as it is infuriating for Mark McGhee’s team. The concession of another late goal in last weekend’s Ladbrokes Premiership trip to St Johnstone put the brakes on any momentum generated by their 3-0 win at Dundee United just four days earlier, propelling them back into a pit of despair made familiar to the over the last few weeks.
It was the sixth time in 10 games Motherwell had allowed a late lapse to hamper their cause and no doubt left all concerned longing for a chance to put it right. None more so than Scott McDonald, who played a pivotal role in helping his side do just that on Saturday against Partick Thistle.
The Australian striker was helpless to prevent the Fir Park club falling to a 2-1 defeat in Perth the week earlier after he was forced to pull out of the game just seconds before it began due to a tight hamstring. It meant he was forced to sit on the bench and witness another collapse that would throw fresh doubt on Motherwell’s ability to see games out.
He would finally get his chance to show that they can do just that at the weekend. Three goals up and cruising at Fir Park on Saturday thanks to a Louis Moult double and a Marvin Johnson solo effort, even the concession of a cheap late goal from Callum Booth was not enough to worry McGhee or his team, undoubtedly bolstered by the return of his industrious Australian forward.
“Coming off the back of scoring a couple of goals it was a blow,” said McDonald of missing out at McDiarmid Park days after scoring two at Tannadice. “It never happens when you’re playing badly!
“It was the last kick of the warm-up and I had to say to the gaffer that it didn’t feel right. He said that it was best for me to sit it out.
“There’s no point in me playing and having to come off after two minutes and using up a sub.
“It was better I sat out the Saints game and put in some good work with the physio. It all turned out good this week.
“We needed that win. We turned up and dominated from the start. It got edgy at the end when they scored but it was a fair result.”
While last week McGhee and his Motherwell players who surfaced to speak to the press stressed the need not to be swept away with grief at the loss of at least a point, conversely this time they were pleading the case of caution. The victory hauls them up to eighth place, three points behind Dundee in sixth but more importantly four in front of Kilmarnock in the relegation play-off place.
It is a no man’s land fraught with danger for several teams keen to temper their top-six ambitions with the raw desire to simply survive, and McDonald is no different in finding it difficult to know what direction to glance in.
“I really don’t know which way to look,” he said. “Maybe a bit of both because it’s that tight. Results are drawing people in right now but next week it could stretch again.
“It’s good for the neutral but for everyone involved in it you would like to be as a far away from it as possible.
“We’re in a far better position than we were last year and we have a good group of lads in there.
“Hopefully we can get wins before the split and then see where we are.”
Thistle are in an equally precarious position as the team that beat them at the weekend. A place and a point below but with three games in hand, the Glasgow club can also not afford to be swayed as the season gallops towards the split.
What must be addressed, however, is how flat they were for much of this contest. This was largely down to Motherwell striking at key times of the game to knock any sing of resurgence out of their opponents, but it will be a frustration to Alan Archibald, the Thistle manager, that his team did not show any sign of urgency or creativity until Booth’s pot shot somehow evaded Connor Ripley and ruffled the net with 14 minutes to play.
“It was a very disappointing afternoon,” said Stuart Bannigan, the Thistle midfielder. “We just didn’t play at all until we were 3-0 down and the game was over. They outmatched us all over the park.
“It was a very tough game for us. But our performance wasn’t good enough. It was disappointing.
“We had a few chances to get it 3-2. I think the goal that made it 3-0 spooked us. By the end it was too little too late.”
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