Motherwell Fail to Turn Up at Inverness

We had a shocker of a first half.

The game soon established itself into a dour SPL struggle with neither team showing much in the way of skill or attacking flair. Partridge had a softish header on target in twelve minutes and Marshall was called into action with a diving save to concede a corner. Then it started.

McDonald tweaked a hamstring and was replaced by Clarkson. He had been the only thing that looked like a threat in our attack. Craigan stopped, hand raised, claiming offside at the corner off the box. The defence stopped but no flag appeared. By this time Marshall has come out to face the threat from Prunty and was left adrift as the squared pass enabled Bayne to tap in to the empty net.

Worse was to follow two minutes later. A suspect header off Craigan gave Prunty a one on one chance with Marshall. The keeper handled just outside the box and referee Cassidy sent him off. Corr replaced Fagan and the resulting free kick flew over the bar.

Just to complete a dismal first forty five minutes, McBride crumbled under a bad challenge from Golabek and was stretchered off. Kerr used up our third substitution and just under an hour still remained.

Inverness had made the most of their one man advantage and they continued to camp in our half for long spells. We had the odd foray to the end where our two hundred fans were seated but we looked quite unlike the team which had the confidence to win at Aberdeen.

Both Clarkson and Hammell had late efforts at rescuing a point but we got all we deserved in the end. Indeed, we were lucky that our goal difference suffered by only one.

It will be a tense Saturday at Fir Park when Killie come to town.