We blew it! Motherwell had a great opportunity to climb away from the struggling duo at the bottom of the league but a toothless, lethargic and pedestrian performance contrived to lose to a St Mirren team that had won only once in their previous 18 attempts.
It was not supposed to be this way. A Motherwell win and expected defeats for Dundee and Hamilton would have been an ideal present from Santa but we failed to play our part.
The manager had selected a weakened side in midweek. After the Parkhead game he said, "We've got three big, big games coming up...and we've got players that are going to be fresh." That didn’t work out so well.
The bald fact was that there were two poor teams on show and the visitors got the lucky break. The rebound off Gillespie’s save fell for Jackson and presented St Mirren with a very rare three points on the road. Keith Lasley sent on two additional strikers but apart from a fierce shot and a close range header from David Turnbull in the last minute it never looked like we would score.
Put simply, we are not very good. The team can produce the occasional hard working effort that delivers a win, the game in Perth was an example, but more often than not we produce a flat display that only finds success with the help of a cooperative opposition.
The post-match comments from Lasley and the players made clear that they understood the importance of the game and their disappointment was evident.
Boxing Day comes with a visit from Kilmarnock. If we don't produce a huge improvement we can expect another defeat.