SCOTLAND Under-21 midfielder David Turnbull’s 12th goal of the season claimed all three points for 10-man Motherwell and effectively relegated Dundee, who had twice taken the lead. Losing manager Jim McIntyre refused to throw in the towel but he knows the odds are stacked against them.
“It was a desperate situation before and it’s even more desperate now; it’s going to take favours,” he said. “But we’ll keep at it. We’ll get ready for next week and do the exact same thing we did today, attack the game and try to get three points.
“We can’t affect elsewhere. All we can do is try and win our game. We certainly put everything into that today but, ultimately, we’ve not done enough.”
Gboly Ariyibi handed the visitors an early lifeline when he tracked the run of Cammy Kerr and then clumsily challenged the full-back. It was a soft penalty but skipper Martin Woods emphatically converted the award to give the basement club the lead.
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However, in keeping with the wretchedness of their campaign, Dundee were in front for less than a minute. Their defence backed off from the advancing Turnbull and they paid the price for that indecision when the midfielder’s shot from 25 yards struck Nathan Ralph and looped over Seny Dieng on its way into the net.
In fairness, they refused to buckle and they capitalised on more dilatory defending from the hosts to move back in front midway through the first half. Charles Dunne looked the favourite to reach Scott Wright’s through ball first but the burly defender allowed himself to be turned by Ethan Robson, who then curled a 20-yarder inside Mark Gillespie’s left-hand post from the far corner of the penalty area.
Dundee are where they are for a reason, of course, and this time Motherwell restored parity just two minutes later. Ariyibi’s corner was headed back to him by Alex Gorrin, the winger played the ball back into the box and James Scott equalised with a low drive from an acute angle for his first senior goal.
Centre-back Tom Aldred ought to have fired the hosts in front from another Ariyibi corner but snatched at the opportunity, ballooning the ball over from on the penalty spot.
Jesse Curran came close to restoring Dundee’s lead two minutes after the restart but Gillespie managed to turn his shot from Robson’s deep delivery against the post.
Ariyibi then fired the home side ahead from Alan Campbell’s cross but, true to form, they conceded within two minutes when Ralph bulleted home a header from Woods’ corner.
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Motherwell were reduced to 10 men in the 58th minute when Alex Gorrin, cautioned in the first half for a foul on Woods, was shown a second yellow card for taking out Craig Curran. Four minutes later Genseric Kusunga’s header from a Woods corner beat Gillespie but rebounded to safety off his right-hand post.
Even against 10 men, Dundee looked vulnerable and it required a superb reflex save from the otherwise unimpressive Seny Dieng to keep out Turnbull’s netbound free-kick.
There was controversy six minutes from time when referee Kevin Clancy awarded Motherwell a penalty for a handball by Kuysunga only to then award Dundee a goal-kick after conferring with his assistant, Jordan Stokoe.
However, the outstanding Turnbull won it in stoppage time when he crashed a left-foot shot against the crossbar but recovered to beat Sieng with a venomous right-foot drive from the rebound to hand the Dark Blues a ninth successive defeat.
“It was way too open for my liking but it was an exciting game of football and I thought we got our just rewards in the end against highly-motivated opponents,” said Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson.
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