August 2002 Saturday, August 3
6.10pm
Motherwell went down 3-2 to Livingston this afternoon, and after coming back from 3-0 down we can consider ourselves a little unlucky not to snatch a point.
We started the match in our now usual 4-4-2 formation, with Stephen Pearson taking his place in midfield after recovering from injury and Kevin McDonald replacing the suspended Derek Adams. The youngster can be proud of his performance today and looks to be yet another star of the future.
There was very little between the sides during the first half, yet we managed to find ourselves going in 2-0 down at the interval. The first came after only 8 mins, the first goal of the new SPL campaign, when a corner kick wasn’t cleared and Rubio was allowed to drive the ball into the net. The home side’s second came when Dadi outjumped the defence and set-up Zarate, who drilled the ball low past Steve Woods who might feel he could have done better with the strike.
A third Livingston goal just after half time appeared to have killed the game off as a contest, but we battled back and reduced the deficit after 50 mins, with Scott Leitch grabbing a rare goal when he turned the ball past Broto with the outside of his foot. Shortly afterwards it was 3-2, when McFadden set-up Lehmann to head home at the far post. We went all out for an equaliser and survived a few near-misses at the other end, a, but sadly Livingston held on for a narrow win.
Terry Butcher was sent to the stand in the dying minutes as things became rather heated. However, it’s perhaps understandable that he lost the plot as the ref today was John Bowbotham, who once again proved that he is the most incompetent official in Scottish football. And his far-side linesman wasn’t much better.
Despite the defeat we probably shouldn’t be too despondent, given the way the team battled back from being 3-0 down to almost grabbing a draw. Not one of the players could be faulted for effort, and we’ll certainly play a whole lot worse than this in the future and win. I’m sure the management team will be disappointed at the first two goals we lost, and in fact we struggled all afternoon to deal with high balls into the box. I know it’s only the second game of the season, but next week’s match against Partick Thistle is now vital and one we really need to take three points from.
Team: Woods, Ramsay, Corrigan, Partridge, Hammell, McDonald (Clarke 81), Lasley, Leitch, Pearson, Lehmann, McFadden.
Subs not used: Dubourdeau, Kinniburgh, Black, Clarkson
Crowd: 7,124
Time for TWO new Opinion Polls…
What do you think of the new Home and Away Strips?
and