Yet we might have stolen a point had Erwin taken just a millisecond to compose himself before the errant header ten minutes from time. His eagerness resulted in a wild miss and his chance of glory went with it. He has shown enough promise already this season to suggest that we’ll be able celebrate with him before too long.
The home areas of the ground looked sparse and empty compared to the busy South Stand. Motherwell fans were in the minority of the 7,740 crowd and that will do nothing to help the team or the club’s perilous finances. Maybe we need a relegation dogfight to entice the wayward supporters back. In 1997 we had a crowd close to 10,000 when we beat Dunfermline to avoid a play-off spot.
We know that our competitors for the rest of the season will be those fellow strugglers in the bottom half of the table. Success in the upcoming triple against Ross County, St Mirren and Partick Thistle would provide some welcome comfort. Can the fabled ‘new manager bounce’ offer us some hope?
There have been patches in recent games when we looked like a football team but for much of the time confidence has been missing and every effort has looked laboured. Misplaced passes, negative play and poor finishing have characterised much of the season. We desperately need the freshness that a new manager could bring.
The probable list of candidates includes Van der Gaag, Maskant, Butcher, Shiels and Black. Whatever choice the directors make (and I don’t envy their position) the need for speed is now clear. McCall resigned five weeks ago and we have since has 1 win and 3 losses. Indications are that we’ll have an announcement this week.
The new man will be number 23 in the growing list of managers. How times have changed – our first 3 (Hunter, Stevenson and Ancell) had more than 50 years between them!
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