After the astonishing finish to the Aberdeen game, hopes were high when we visited Almondvale for the first time. A larger than usual ‘Well following made the journey to Livingston and for the opening fifteen minutes they were delighted with what they saw.
The visiting ‘Well side had turned the game into a midfield bore – the perfect away performance – but it all went hideously wrong.Three goals before the break, all of them defensive calamities, ensured the points were staying home. However, that man McFadden scored his second goal for the club with a glancing header ten minutes from time to give the Motherwell fans a small consolation for the journey home.
We were heading back along the M8 on the next Saturday and this time we produced a better result.We gifted Hibs an early goal and were lucky to go in only one down at the break.With the second half drifting away, our chance seemed to have gone when Elliott hit the post.He wasn’t to be denied though and when Stevie Hammell produced some magic on the left, Stuart was on hand to slam the ball home.There was still time for Hibs to come back and it took a tremendous last ditch tackle from Eric Deloumeaux to keep our point safe.
The two away games were tough and we weren’t given an easy chance for points the next week either.Rangers were playing their first game under Alex McLeish and ironically enough it was to be at Fir Park.A thumping strike from Keith Lasley gave us a lead but Shota Arvaladze equalised.The game was going from end to end but when a Neil McCann corner somehow slipped past everyone, it looked like McLeish would have a winning start – however, we should have known that the chances of McLeish winning at Fir Park were slim.A very debatable hand ball decision was given against Fernando Rickson and while Kelly’s spot kick wasn’t brilliant, it was good enough to beat Klos and give us another draw.
The Tynecastle hoodoo continued as we threw away a lead at half time to lose 3-1.We weren’t helped by Eddie Forrest’s dismissal for a tug on Ricardo Fuller who himself should already have been sent off.At this stage, we were relying on St Johnstone’s incompetence to keep us alive – we were in the middle of a seven game winless run.
|
St Johnstone were eight points behind us when they came to Fir Park on Boxing Day.A loss would surely have relegated them and it looked like the perfect opportunity for us to get back to winning ways.It wasn’t to be though and two soft goals gave the Saints all three points.We created more than enough chances to get ourselves back into things but we only found the net in injury time when McFadden’s shot was deflected home.Questions were beginning to be asked of Eric Black and a strange 3-6-1 formation at Parkhead did nothing to change this.Even more bizarrely, Elliott was dropped to the bench while Andy Dow was recalled for the first time in ages.Yann Soloy, a short term signing, was given a chance at his preferred position of midfield.We held on for eighty minutes but two late goals gave Celtic the win.
However, while we were losing to Celtic, St Johnstone were struggling at home.They lost that day and this eased the pressure on us considerably.Having been bottom of the league in September, most people were happy at being five points clear at the start of January.We also had a third round cup tie at East End Park to look forward to…
| Season Review 2001/2 Part 2 |
| Season Review 2001/2 Part 1 |