The first meeting on Fir Park’s bumpy pitch was short on thrills and only Jutkiewicz’s to-poke separated the sides. The latest derby prompted Craig Brown to comment that he would not have been happy to have paid to watch the “horror show”. Certainly neither game would encourage any neutrals to hand over twenty pounds next week!
That Motherwell managed to take four points from the two meetings must be regarded as a bonus we hardly deserved. Still, the unbeaten run now extends to six and we have two home games ahead. We are well into the third cycle and the countdown to the split shows eight matches remaining.
Both managers felt that their players had not recovered from their midweek exertions. Their contention that a Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday run is beyond the players’ capacities stretches belief. Motherwell had played a Monday night cup tie in Inverness on 18 January but it is difficult see how that had any long term effect.
If we can’t cope with the occasional midweek fixture then maybe it’s as well that we don’t have the distractions of the cup competitions to tire us further.
The one positive sign on show on Saturday was the 40 minute appearance of McGlinchey. He was keen to get involved and did nothing to suggest that we would regret giving him the opportunity to sharpen up for his adventure to South Africa. His distribution was good and he seems to have enough pace to tease his opponents.
Our next few games have us at home against Hibs then Kilmarnock before a trip to Perth. Assuming the boys get to bed early for the next few nights we should expect to see some more activity on the park (and a few more points too!).