Motherwell 1 Cardiff 0

Fagan gets the red card

In fact, both teams had a man sent off in the opening minutes and had the referee been so inclined, he could have shown enough yellow cards to ensure the match turned into farce. Shaun Fagan was on the receiving end of an astonishingly late tackle but that was no excuse for his overly aggressive reaction and both players took an early bath.

Chances were few and far between in the opening half hour, the Cardiff number eleven blasting over being the best of the bunch. We took the lead though, when McFadden was hauled down in the box after being released by Dirk Lehmann. After a brief debate, Derek Adams took the responsibility and sent the ‘keeper the wrong way to open the scoring.

Adams scores

The goal seemed to give us a lift and McFadden began to look dangerous. We struggled to create chances though and Martyn Corrigan’s attempt to get on the end of a corner was our best effort.

The opening fifteen minutes of the second half was our best spell of the game, with McFadden leading the Cardiff defenders a merry dance. A couple of blocked long shots was all we could manage though and ex-Livi goalie Neil Alexander never looked in danger.

Cardiff made a flurry of substitutions and had most of the ball for the last half hour but they were even worse at making scoring chances than us. One effort from twenty yards was deflected wide but they had no other opportunities worth noting. We missed some half chances on the break to wrap things up.

Lehmann has a shot

This match was a terrible advert for pre-season friendlies but it was another good win for us and contained some outstanding individual performances. Faddy was the obvious star but Martyn Corrigan had a blinder at the back and Derek Adams put in another sterling shift. We have now won five games in a row and confidence must be high going into the final week of pre-season build up.

Stephen Pearson was missing with an knock picked up against Birmingham and both Kemas and Sengewald have yet to make their debuts.

Team:
Woods
Hammell Partridge Corrigan Ramsay
Fagan Leitch(S78 McDonald)  Adams(S85 Kinniburgh) Lasley
Lehman McFadden

Subs: DuBordeau Dempsie Clarke

Motherwell 1 Cardiff City 0
Attendance 2450