Motherwell 1
Dundee Utd 1
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Dave Narey was ruled out with a heavy cold, but we were able to welcome back Billy McKinlay and Duncan Ferguson. Mixu Paatelainen was the other man to drop out of the side to accommodate the two players returning from injury. Motherwell were ravaged by injury and had only recorded one win in their last nine outings and were without a victory in their last five matches. It didn't look as though the home side would improve on that kind of form in the first half which was dominated by us. Former United goalkeeper, Billy Thomson foiled us early on when he beat out a blistering netbound shot from John Clark. Maaskant joined his Dutch colleague Nijholt in the referee's note-book with less than 25 minutes on the clock as we took the game to Motherwell. Our 27th minute opener was no less than we deserved and came when John Clark played the ball through to Darren Jackson who delightfully drew Billy Thomson to slide the ball home from an acute angle. Motherwell enjoyed their best spell of the first half towards the interval and Kirk drove past the far post with what was their only serious goal attempt of the first half. Freddy van der Hoorn became the third Dutchman to be shown a yellow card before the interval for a push on Arnott.

Motherwell replaced Philliben with Russell during the break and he almost immediately instigated an equaliser when Maaskant headed his cross just past the post. Mixu Paatelainen came into the fray for Victor Ferreyra as the home side pressed for an equaliser, but sterling defensive work prevented any actual shots on goal. In fact, we almost went further ahead when Nijholt cleared Mixu Paatelainen's shot off the line. Sixty-nine minutes had elapsed before Motherwell had a shot on target. Nijholt testing his fellow countryman with a low shot from 25 yards out which Guide van de Kamp held comfortably. The United keeper was in action moments later to smother an O'Donnell header as they stepped their efforts for an equaliser. With just three minutes remaining we saw victory snatched from us when a Dolan lob into the box was headed down by Arnott to Steve Kirk who was left with the simple task of netting from close range. Prior to that goal, Jim Mclnally was booked and Dave Bowman suffered a similar fate seconds before the final whistle to complete an unhappy finale to the match.