THERE were over 1600 reasons for Motherwell to take their winning streak up to four on Saturday.
Buoyed by a sense of fresh optimism, the Lanarkshire club brought that impressive amount of supporters with them as they arrived at Firhill knowing how beneficial three points against Partick Thistle would be.
Instead, Ian Baraclough, his team and their large band of followers were left to contemplating the damage this 2-0 defeat has caused.
Two second half goals from Lyle Taylor and a red card for Motherwell substitute Stuart Carswell was the long and short of a frustrating afternoon in Glasgow as they failed to close the gap on their hosts to a point, instead seeing them stretch the margin to seven with 15 left to play for.
Currently in the precarious position of 11th in the SPFL Premiership three points away from Ross County - who travel to St Mirren tonight - the task facing the Fir Park club to avoid that relegation play-off place has now been made all the more tricky. It is a plot twist in Motherwell's comeback story that Stephen McManus, the club's veteran centre-half, acknowledges was hard to watch for the raft of paying punters housed in the creaky old main stand at Firhill on Saturday.
"The supporters deserve better than what they got in the second half. You could see and hear how good they were and it is up to us to deliver on the pitch," said McManus.
"If you win five games from five you'll stay up and that's got to be the aim. You can go into a corner and feel sorry for yourself but that's not us. The other lads will be the same, you want to tackles these challenges head on. It's going to be difficult but we are certainly going to give it a right good crack."
Going into the game on a fine run of form that was devastatingly accentuated on Tuesday in a stunning 5-0 win over St Mirren, Motherwell's dynamism that took the Paisley side apart was largely lacking on a blustery afternoon in Maryhill. Without the quick feet and pace of winger Marvin Johnson through injury, Baraclough's side struggled to have as much penetration as striker Lee Erwin was shuffled on to the flank to make way for John Sutton in attack, who blew a glorious chance in the opening seconds after a defensive calamity let him in.
Conversely, Thistle's forays forward caused Motherwell problems, particularly in a second half where the visitors' shape began to distort in a scrappy game. That allowed their hosts to capitalise and score a finely worked - but dreadfully defended - goal from a free-kick, before going on to add another soon later as Motherwell lost their composure and resistance.
"We'd been on a good run and people were forgetting that," said Conrad Balatoni of a run five games made up of three wins, a draw and a defeat. "We've played the top teams in the league and, although we lost to Celtic, we got a draw at Aberdeen.
"Our run was good and we were confident going into the match. People were writing us off, but we showed everyone what we are all about."
That is just what Motherwell will need to do when the split gets underway. And quickly.
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