Motherwell's cup hopes ended with a 2-1 defeat to the holders at Fir Park. With the game level after 90 minutes Inverness substitute Roberts scored with a magnificent long range shot. This habit of losing a goal at the death has to stop.
The game provided few patches of exciting play as the teams struggled to hold possession in forward areas. The Inverness opener will not make pleasant viewing for the ‘Well defence but the equaliser from the training ground gave us hope. With a replay looking likely the game was won with the best strike of the game.
The McManus header set up McDonald's goal
Hall was not fully recovered from the injury sustained at Firhill and Kennedy held on to his place. Moult started on the bench and Gomis made his home debut. The Hearts loanee proved to be our best player with Cadden also worthy of his appearance money. McDonald was on his own up front with occasional support from Pearson and Johnson.
Johnson caused confusion near the Williams’ goal with his early cross but that was it for the first half hour. Storey forced Ripley to backtrack with a looping header but the ball was scrambled to safety. The game turned into a proper contest five minutes before the break. At the south Stand end McDonald hit the bar with a header but we conceded a minute later. There seemed to be little danger but Law seemed to hesitate in the box and the alert Tremarco won the race to the ball. From the dead ball line he drove across the face of goal and the ball came off McManus with Storey in close attendance.
It was a goal out of nothing and with Motherwell showing little apart from dogged effort there was a suspension that a half-time substitution might be needed.
The leveller might have arrived in 51 minutes when Cadden’s energy on the right wing gave him the chance to find Pearson arriving from midfield. The cross looked good but Pearo failed to make contact. We escaped punishment when a McManus slip opened up our defence but Ripley came to the rescue.
We seemed to stutter and stumble and forward progress was limited. Fans’ eyes returned to the bench eager to see the manager make a telling change but in 67 minutes we scored.
Hammell placed a corner kick high to the 18 yard line. McManus met it on the run and his powerful downward header was redirected into the net by McDonald. We were back in the game.
With 10 minutes remaining Lasley made way for Moult and Ainsworth was gaven a run in 87 minutes when McDonald was substituted. A replay looked likely but with the stadium clock showing 90 minutes Roberts shattered our dreams with a powerful drive from all of 30 yards. It flew to Ripley’s top right hand corner to knock us out of the cup.
Motherwell 0 Inverness 1
Attendance 3,907 (287)
Team: Ripley, Hammell, McManus, pearson, Johnson, Lasley (Moult 82), Kennedy, Gomis, Law, Cadden, McDonald (Ainsworth 87)