Motherwell reached the quarter finals of the Premier Sports Cup after an extra-time goal from Moses Ebiye beat Kilmarnock 1-0.
After a fairly level opening 50 minutes the game turned following the ordering off of Stuart Findlay following a second yellow card. Motherwell pressed their advantage relentlessly but they had to wait until extra time to make the breakthrough.
There was little between the teams before the break although Motherwell kept the visiting defence busy with lots of crosses into their area. At the other end Aston Oxborough had little to do.
The catalyst of the red card invigorated the ‘Well attack. The home crowd responded and there were repeated charges into the Cooper end goal. Derek McInnes threw on four substitutes but the flow did not change. In order to break up Motherwell’s dominance he passed a message to his ‘keeper via a substitute and moments later Kieren O’Hara collapsed in his area to stop play. An unscheduled team talk followed.
Stuart Kettlewell made his own changes with the most significant being Tony Watt (to a big ovation) and Tawanda Maswanhise. The latter was announced to the fans just before the match and the 21 year old made a big impression. His deliveries from the left side of the park offered several opportunities to his forwards and in the end he delivered the winning ball for Moses Ebiye to head in the only goal of the game.
Tony Watt had a chance to open his account in regular time but his header inside the final ten minutes flew high.
After the goal the visitors threw everything forward. Motherwell lost the initiative and there were several nervous moments but the equaliser failed to materialise and the safety of the draw for the next round was reached.
That delivered a home tie against Dundee United for the weekend of 21/22 September.
Motherwell 1 Kilmarnock 0 (aet)
Attendance 4,371
Team: Oxborough, O'Donnell, Casey (Maswanhise 60), Gordon, McGinn, Seddon (Sparrow 73), Wilson, Zdarvkovski (Watt 60), , Halliday (Kaleta 73), Miller (Balmer 119), Robinson (Ebiye 73)
Sunday 18 August 2024