St Johnstone 0, Motherwell 3

A large ‘Well traveling support enjoyed another excellent Scottish Cup away-day as we defeated St Johnstone 3-0 in this afternoon’s 3rd Round tie.  Motherwell were never in any danger against a poor Saints team, in fact the match was virtually over as a contest at half-time.

Not surprisingly, Terry Butcher stuck with the same starting eleven who beat Dundee United last weekend.  New signing Scott McDonald was named among the substitutes.  More on him later…

Motherwell were the better them throughout the match, and Burns had already gone close for us before the man of the moment, David Clarkson, put us 1-0 after 24 mins when he pounced upon a loose ball and deftly chipped the Saints goalkeeper.  Not long afterwards our lead was doubled, when Clarkson was given acres of room to fire home at the back post.

To be honest, the second half was a bit of a non event as St Johnstone never really looked like getting back into the match.  We carved out a few more chances, most notably for Alex Burns who went close with a diving header, but it was substitute Scott “Dougie” McDonald who rounded off the day in style by scoring on his debut in the closing stages to make it 3-0 to the Mighty ‘Well.

To say we cruised to victory today would be a bit of an understatement as St Johnstone were second best to us in every department.  We certainly took the Perth club by surprise with the number of fans we took through to today’s game, and not long after kick-off the stewards had to allow supporters to move from the jam-packed North Stand to the Main Stand via the touchline.  All in all it was an excellent day out.  Could another decent cup run be on the cards…?

Team (4-4-2): Marshall, Quinn, Corrigan, Craigan, Hammell, Lasley (Fagan 90), Adams (O’Donnell 80), Leitch, Dair, Burns, Clarkson (McDonald 74). 
Subs Not Used: Corr, Kinniburgh.

Booked: Hammell.

Crowd: 4,090.

The Official Site reports that the club have completed the signing of Gary Bollan from Dundee United.  No further details are available at present.

Our reward for winning today was a home (yes, a HOME) tie against Queen of the South in the 4th Round.  The match will be played on Saturday, February 7.

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