The game was full of incident rather than flowing football and the referee, Craig Thomson, was kept busy policing players and backroom staff as tempers rose.
Sutton in the wars
Beuzelin received his second yellow inside half an hour and the Accies faced up to the reality of playing the last hour of the match with ten men. Given that Motherwell had looked the more dangerous team in the opening period it looked like a fatal blow. Humphrey had been lively on the left wing and he had delivered a couple of tasty crosses. Sutton had the ball in the net but bundled Cerny at the same time.
The reshuffled 'Well team (Ruddy, Hutchison and Moutouakil were injured) piled on the pressure to get a first half lead. Left-back Reynolds pushed forward (he was flagged for offside at one stage!) and O'Brien's probing caused problems resulting in a penalty when Hastings fouled.
Forbes lined up for what seemed like the formality in front of the Motherwell fans and hesitated before striking weakly to the keeper's right. Cerny coped easily with the attempt and the home side got a huge lift.
Gannon made his intentions clear by introducing a third striker, Murphy, at the cost of Craigan as the teams resumed battle. It looked to have paid off within a minute but a fine double stop from Cerny denied both Reynolds and Sutton the opener.
A disappointing period followed and we seemed to lose focus. Passes went astray and we appeared unable to take advantage of the extra man. We failed to spay the ball wide and continued with the direct approach which suited the big Hamilton defence.
Matters took a turn for the worse when Mensing's accurate header from a corner opened the scoring. He made a point of enjoying his celebration in front of his former fans (and who could blame him).
We renewed our efforts and pushed forward with enthusiasm rather than skill. As the clocked moved on it looked less likely that we would score. Forbes and O'Brien were replaced with Jennings and McHugh as the frustration in the away stand mounted.
Then, from thirty yards, Murphy unleased a gem. The ball flew into the postage stamp corner and we had a lifeline. In the minutes that followed we piled the pressure on the Accies goal but we came back to earth with a bump when Paixio headed a cross home.
We were behind again, to ten men, and any neutral observer would have said that they would have deserved to win the game. But with the final minutes looming Jutkiewicz got on the end of a Coke cross and grabbed the equaliser.
It was a disappointing performance from Motherwell even allowing for the forced changes which unsettled the team. Manager Gannon choose not to speak to the media after the game and it can be assumed that he was not a happy man.