There was not much between the teams until Gow headed the opener after half an hour and when Blackman’s effort spun high off of Munro’s attempted block to beat Esson it looked like the game was cut and dried.
We should have added to the tally in the second half well before Duff’s fine strike gave us an uncomfortable 15 minutes at the end. On the one hand it was good to see a Motherwell team make a number of decent chances but disappointing that we couldn’t kill the game during a long spell of dominance.
The away end at kick off
It was also pleasing to see Murphy back on the pitch. Unfortunately we conceded two minutes after his arrival and he was hardly involved. What was notable was how much we missed Blackman’s ability to hold up the ball when he made way for Jamie. No doubt the substitution would not have been made had we lost the goal earlier.
The first cycle of games is now complete and it’s hard to imagine that we could be better placed. The table shows us clear in third place and best-of-the-rest. An illustration of the tightness of the chasing pack is revealed when we note that as the final whistle blew in Inverness, Motherwell were 11 points behind the leaders and the same margin ahead of the bottom team.
The second stage of the league campaign begins on Wednesday when St Johnstone visit Fir Park. Same again will do nicely!