The players grabbed the chance to make amends for recent disappointments in front of the Fir Park faithful and they didn't disappoint. Stuart McCall added his praise by pointing out that "so many people were on top of their game" as he did the rounds of post-match interviews.
Given the manager's plea, in the pre-match features, that he is keen to extend the loan deals of Anier and Ainsworth, he was delighted that the pair were the stars of the match. The decision to extend their spells would be much easier if we could anticipate some income from cup competitions but our early exits mean that every penny is a prisoner and the board will have to steer a careful path through the January transfer window.
Our results against teams in the bottom six make a remarkable contrast to those when we face the other five in the top half of the table. We have a perfect winning record in the ten games against the lower half (conceding only four goals on the way) yet only one solitary point has been taken from our immediate competitors.
Team by team analysis - Motherwell 22/12/2013
|
1 |
06-Dec |
L 0-5 |
05-Oct |
L 0-2 |
|
|
2 |
09-Nov |
L 0-4 |
22-Sep |
D 2-2 |
|
|
3 |
11-Aug |
L 1-3 |
|
|
|
|
4 |
|
|
17-Aug |
L 0-2 |
|
|
6 |
|
|
27-Oct |
L 0-2 |
|
|
7 |
03-Nov |
W 1-0 |
04-Aug |
W 1-0 |
|
|
8 |
21-Dec |
W 3-0 |
14-Sep |
W 1-0 |
|
|
9 |
31-Aug |
W 2-1 |
23-Nov |
W 2-0 |
|
|
10 |
24-Aug |
W 1-0 |
|
|
|
|
11 |
28-Sep |
W 3-1 |
14-Dec |
W 2-1 |
|
|
12 |
19-Oct |
W 2-1 |
|
The trip to Pittodrie on Thursday and home games against St Johnstone and Inverness at the start of the New Year offer a chance to improve those poor statistics and move us back into a European place.