Scottish Cup business takes centre stage this weekend as Motherwell head to Paisley for a fifth round tie with St Mirren. The away stand is a sold out and a tense battle for a quarter final place is guaranteed.
The teams have a short recovery window following Wednesday night’s league games. Motherwell showed in the first half against Celtic that they had recovered some form from the horror show at Livingston but they were ultimately undone by a far better team.
St Mirren needed a late goal from İlkay Durmuş to level their meeting with Hamilton then had the good fortune to see Accies miss a penalty. They have yet to record a league win in their four 2020 fixtures and have to recall their fourth round cup win against Broxburn Athlectic for recent success.
Motherwell hold the upper hand in this season’s meetings. James Scott and Chris Long delivered the goals in a 2-0 win in October and Allan Campbell and a Scott double produced a 3-0 win at Greenhill Road in December.
The young striker is now with Hull and Motherwell are without a goal in the last three outings. The addition of Rolando Aarons, although encouraging on his debut against Celtic, is hardly a like for like replacement. If we are to progress to the next round we will have to score, a requirement that Stephen Robinson well knows.
With a top six finish to the league season looking likely Motherwell can look to a run in the Scottish Cup to round off a successful season. It may not be a game for the football purist but a close match with a 1-0 away win will see us through.