1-0 wins are becoming an opening day habit for Motherwell. The previous two seasons each began with the same result, against St Mirren (h) and Hibs (a), but the relevance of those early games becomes clear when we note that the eventual outcomes were second top and second bottom finishes.
Nevertheless, for the manager in his first full season and for his reconfigured team the result offers some assurance that the plan is working. Baraclough was able to enjoy the post-match interviews and talk of the “pleasing aspects” of the game. “The shape was good; it was difficult for them to find any pockets of space to feed off or anything in behind. We restricted them to very little throughout the game, even when we started to fatigue a little in the last ten minutes, as you tend to do in the first month of the new campaign.”
His only regret was that we managed to convert only one of the many goal scoring opportunities.
The starting eleven showed three changes from the team that played on May 31 (Ripley, Chalmers and Fletcher replacing Long, Ainsworth and Erwin). Moult and Clarkson raised the number of close season debutants to five when they appeared as second half substitutes.
The news that Pearson left the stadium on crutches is a worry. The midfielder was booked following a collision with Warren that resulted in the Inverness player suffering a broken ankle. Pearson’s knee suffered damage and further investigation will be needed to determine if he’ll be able to take the field against Dundee United on Saturday.
The long trek home from the Caledonian Stadium always seems shorter after a win, let’s hope for a repeat when we return there in April.