A Ross Forbes special gave Motherwell a 1-0 first leg advantage in the Europa League 2nd qualifying round at Fir Park. The narrow scoreline hardly reflected the balance of play and Craig Brown will be cautiously optimistic for the second leg.
A Ross Forbes special gave Motherwell a 1-0 first leg advantage in the Europa League 2nd qualifying game at Fir Park. The narrow scoreline hardly reflected the balance of play and Craig Brown will be cautiously optimistic for the second leg.
The Europa League campaign begins....thanks to Ger for the pics
The first half provided a frustrating 45 minutes. We had plenty of the ball but failed to convert any of our chances. Hammell, Hateley, Forbes and Humphrey all supplied teasing crosses but neither Murphy nor Sutton was able to make the killing connection.
The visitors had a couple of efforts, the second , in 24 minutes, could have caused a shock but Perursson shot high from about 8 yards. Apart from that most of the play took place in the Breidablik half.
‘Well chances came at regular intervals; Sutton fired at the keeper then Murphy came close from Forbes’s cross, neat work by Hateley at the angle of the box lead to a high header from Forbes and as the crowd started to show signs of discontent Sutton’s touch at the near post from Hateley’s delivery just went wide.
Ross Forbes is mobbed following his goal
The second half provided more excitement but it was the visitors who came close (twice!). It seemed that the defence hadn’t realised that the game had resumed and we could have conceded in minute 46. Kristjansson was unmarked at the far post but his effort crossed the face of the goal. The warning wasn’t heeded and Breidablik hit the post two minutes later.
Gary Smith replaced Humphrey on the hour and joined Sutton up front. The change was effective and in a couple of minutes we had the lead. Forbes took the return ball from a corner and he delivered a teasing cross which beat everyone and found the net. There was a huge sigh of relief from the 6,000 fans inside Fir Park.
Saunders then replaced Forbes and we settled down to seek the second but it failed to arrive.
We can be happy with the result given that it was our first competitive outing against a team already well into their season. Another 1-0 next week will do nicely!
(Pictures to follow....)
Attendance 5,990
Team: Randolph, Hammell, Reynolds, Craigan, Hateley, Humphrey, Jennings, Lasley, Forbes, Murphy, Sutton
Substitutes: Hollis, Saunders, Hutchinson, Page, Charalambous, Meechan, Smith