Well slump to defeat at Easter Rd

Randolph
By Grabar
November 13 2010

Two first half goals from Derek Riordan in response to Nick Blackman's penalty were enough to consign Motherwell to defeat.

Well took lead in 9^th minute, Jamie Murphy burst past Michael Hart who takes a tug on his jersey in the box, penalty. Nick Blackman takes it and hammers high into the top left corner with Mark Brown no chance.

 

The lead didn’t last long as Hibs equalise in 14, a poor clearance picks out Derek Riordan at the edge of the box and he rolled a shot into Darren Randolph’s bottom corner.

 

Hibs went ahead with a defensive disaster with Well on 27 minutes. Brown’s long ball wasn’t won by Mark Reynolds then Stephen Craigan mis-controls allowing Riordan a free run to roll past Randolph.

 

Motherwell responded before the break with Alan Gow missing a header from a yard out and Jamie Murphy bending a shot just over.

 

At the start of the second half Liam Miller saw a cross cum shot beaten out, and then a Riordan free bent just over

 

In the 65th minute there was a long delay for a head injury picked up by Francis Dikoh following an accidental clash with Alan Gow.

 

Then Motherwell had three players booked in space of one minute, as ref and players appear to lose patience with each other over a number of debatable incidents.

 

None worse than the decision to disallow a goal by Steven Saunders when he was flagged for offside. It looked at the game he was onside, and TV pictures show this was a terrible decision.

 

With two minutes left Randolph produced a remarkable one handed save to tip over a Riordan shot on the turn from the edge of the box.

 

The game became a bit niggly in the closing stages, not helped by the inconsistent refereeing of Dougie McDonald, which confused both players and fans alike.

 

Even with three subs coming on in stoppage time there was no way through for Well!