Well collapse in second half again

Steven Jennings
By grabar
December 27 2009

For the third game in a row Motherwell saw a promising half time position disappear with a shambolic second half performance against St. Johnstone yesterday.

At half time in this game there looked to be only one winner with Motherwell having dominated the first half and capping their pressure of with a fine goal in the 39th minute.

Keith Lasley picked out Yassin Moutaouakil of the right and his cross to the near post picked out Steven Jennings who bulleted a header past Graeme Smith for his first goal for the club.

St. Johnstone made a double substitution at half time and immediately had Well in the back foot, and after 15 minutes found themselves in the lead.

Peter McDonald reacted quickly on two occasions to some sloppy defending from Well to leave John Ruddy helpless from close range. By this stage Motherwell had gone from a situation when they were playing against a team that looked the poorest in the SPL to being the poorest in the SPL themselves!

Saints turned the knife even further when McDonald completed his hat trick with only twenty minutes left, and from then on there was only going to be one winner – and they weren’t wearing Claret and Amber.

Jim Gannon said it was the worst performance since joining the club, but failed to take any responsibility for the defeat, instead heaping the blame on the players – Mr Gannon, I would ask who picks the team?

He said after the game, “Everybody saw today, I can’t kick a ball for them all I can do is coach them and prepare them as well as I can. They cross the line and it feels at times as though you are juggling soup, I don’t think any formation or eleven would make any difference at this point.

“It is up to the lads to find it within them to galvanise themselves to get a performance that leads to a positive result.”