THE highlight of Simon Ramsden's day on Sunday came before he even took to the pitch for Motherwell against St Johnstone.

News that Sunderland had come out on top against Newcastle United in the Tyne-Wear derby put an extra spring in the step of the lifelong Black Cats supporter, who even jokingly applied for the manager's position at the Stadium of Light last month after Paolo Di Canio was sacked.

Ramsden's hopes for a double celebration were to be dashed, however, as Motherwell succumbed 2-0 in one of their poorest performances of the season. "Hearing the Sunderland score was why I was going up and down the wing in the first 10 minutes - then the fatigue kicked in," he admitted. "That was a nice start to the day but it was soured by our result. I don't know where to begin with that performance, really, it's come out of nowhere. We went into the game in really good form, full of confidence. It's a bit of a shock to everyone.

"We were well aware of the conditions and we knew that at times it wasn't going to be pretty. But after the first goal went in from one to 11 it simply wasn't good enough. There wasn't enough fight and we definitely didn't show the character that has got us to where we are in the league now.

"The frustrating part is that in the first 10 minutes we did pretty well. But after that we gifted possession to them on a regular basis, which isn't like us. It might have been the conditions, it might have been a number of factors, but it certainly wasn't good enough."

Ramsden was involved in St Johnstone's second goal, scored by Nigel Hasselbaink. His pass back forced Gunnar Nielson, the Motherwell goalkeeper, to scurry from his goal to try to prevent a corner, only for the goalkeeper to slip and give Hasselbaink the opportunity to score into an empty net. On top of Stevie May's earlier strike, the goal effectively killed the game.

"The second goal summed it all up," said Ramsden. "I spoke to Gunnar afterwards and it was the only pass on for me at the time. Ninety-nine times out of 100 he takes a touch and clears but it was unfortunate that because of the conditions he's slipped. It probably killed the game for us - if it had stayed 1-0 you never know, you can always nick a goal late on. We had one of those days when little ricochets were coming off us and going out for their throw-ins. They played well and we didn't."

Motherwell at least have an almost immediate shot at redemption. They host Aberdeen at Fir Park tomorrow night, the prize on offer for the victor a place in the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup. "After the result and performance in Perth the lads need to come out and show each other that it was a one-off," added Ramsden.

"We're well aware of how much it means to the club to get through this tie and get through to the semis. It would be great for everybody. Aberdeen are big rivals to us - before the season started they were second-favourites for the league so we know they're going to be right up there and we know it'll be a massive test for us.

"They've already beaten us at our place earlier in the season so we want to put that right. And after [Sunday], we want to repay the fans for letting them down. I've heard we've had a bit of an unfortunate time with [Aberdeen] over the last few seasons so it would be nice to reverse that and put one over them on Wednesday night."