Motherwell won the one-sided League Cup tie at Stenhousemuir 1-0 thanks to a Stephen O’Donnell goal.
The tight scoreline hardly reflected the balance of play as Motherwell camped in the home side’s half for most of the afternoon. Stenhousemuir offered a tight defence that restricted the Steelmen’s goal scoring opportunities.
The continuing theme of these group stage games has been to spread game time through Motherwell’s squad and the pattern was repeated with six changes and five second half substitutes.
Motherwell kicked off in the heavy rain that persisted throughout the first period and under the floodlights. After all it is high summer in Scotland.
The game patteren was soon established and the all blue side in the away strip bore down on the home goal. Tawanda Maswanhise saw his headed attempt touched over the bar. Tom Sparrow was kept busy deep down the right wing but his crosses were mopped up by the defence.
Andy Halliday had a blast high over the bar – no one else had tried their luck.
The goal came five minutes before the break as the continuing pressure brought a reward. Callum close range. There should have been a second when Maswanhise hooked his ten Slattery’s corner kick was missed by Jamieson in goal and in the ruck O’Donnell was credited with the final touch from very yard effort wide after Sparrow had teed him up.
The second half was a rerun of the first. Motherwell sprayed the ball about with ease until the barrier offered by the deep defence stopped progress.
Chances were few. Kofi Balmer tried a header but saw it cleared off the line and Johnny Koutroumbis had a couple of efforts blocked.
A rare break into the ‘Well half ended when Matty Connolly was fouled thirty yards from his goal.
The next test comes with a group decider on Tuesday when Morton visit Fir Park.
Stenhousemuir 0 Motherwell 1
Attendance
Team: Connolly, Sparrow, O’Donnell, Balmer, Wilson, Halliday, Slattery (Watt 68), Fadinger (Said 60), Just(Koutroumbis 60), Maswanhise (Ross 60), Stamatelopoulos (Sule 60)
Saturday 19 July 2025
