10pm

Eric Black spoke to the press after the match and said:
"I thought it was a very poor performance by us and we didn't play at all until we were 2-0 down and when you do that you make it very difficult for yourself and that proved to be the case.  We didn't start the game well at all and although we spoke abut some things beforehand by doing that we gave them the impetus to go on and get a result.  We need to get a response now and we hope that begins on Saturday."

4.55pm

Motherwell were dragged into a relegation battle as St Johnstone won 2-1 at freezing Fir Park this afternoon, on a pitch that looked barely playable in places.

Eric Black made a couple of changes to the team, with Karl Ready replacing the suspended Eddie Forrest in defence and Derek Adams (oh dear) starting in midfield ahead of James McFadden.  Steve Woods kept his place in goal.

I think it would be fair to say that the first-half performance was among the worst I have ever witnessed as a Motherwell supporter, as St Johnstone raced into a 2-0 lead without really breaking sweat.  Both goals came as a result of poor defending, with the first goal in particular being easily avoidable as the ball should have been cleared long before Murray was given the chance to slot home.  The second goal came from MacDonald after 37 mins, and although I'd like to see it again on TV it looked as though Steve Woods could have done a lot better, in fact at both goals he was beaten at his near post.  I can only recall us having one shot at goal in the first 45 mins, a long range effort which was comfortably dealt with by the Saints goalkeeper.

The second half saw Eric Black replace the ineffective Adams with James McFadden, and we enjoyed long spells of possession without ever really forcing the Saints 'keeper to make a save.  Then midway through the half, both teams were reduced to 10 men when Forsyth had a kick at Greg Strong and was promptly dismissed, only for the referee, on the advice of his linesman, to show the red card to Strong too!  As the half wore on, Motherwell threw Karl Ready upfront as we desperately searched for a goal, but it took un until injury time to make the breakthrough when McFadden's shot was deflected in off Paul Kane.  It was too little too late.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that performances like we witnessed today will see us playing First Division football next year.  It was obvious after 10 mins that our tactic of humping high balls up the park was not going to work as they were easily dealt with by the St Johnstone defence, yet we persisted in doing this for the rest of the match.  The gap at the bottom if now down to 5 points, and the impetus is definitely with St Johnstone as just a few weeks ago they were being written off.  The most worrying thing for me was that Saints were first to every ball today and looked as though they wanted to win the match more than we did.  I really do now fear for our SPL survival, although if you are going to persist in playing First Division players then that is the standard of football you can expect.

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