Craig Brown made four changes from the side that played in Denmark on Thursday. Blackman, Cassagolda and Page started SPL games for the first time and Fitzpatrick joined the midfield. The selection was clearly influenced by the upcoming rematch against Odense. Craigan, Murphy and Lasley were on the bench and Sutton had the day off.
The first half served up little in the way of excitement and even less in the way of attacking football. Kilmarnock played most of the passing game while we resorted to high balls to Casagolda and Blackman with no success.
Humphrey made occasional runs up the right wing but the play from both sides was pedestrian at best. Page had an uncomfortable time holding the Killie’s left flank while Hammell was warned about persistent fouling. Just before the break it looked as though he would be booked for a foul on Dayton but it was the Englishman who saw yellow for simulation.
Our first attack came after 32 minutes when we earned a corner. Such was the flow of the game that it was over hit and when Jennings collected he passed back to Reynolds in the other half of the park. In 36 minutes we took the lead, quite unexpectedly! Humphrey delivered a decent cross and Casagolda's head flick sent the ball in the direction of the far post where Blackman was able to fire home. The home fans could hardly believe that their team were behind while the travelling supporters celebrated.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first. We huffed and puffed and rarely ventured into the opposition box. Killie chased the game and Randolph was forced into action more than we would have liked.
Blackman scores his first for Motherwell
On the hour Casagolda was substituted by McHugh and when Page was booked a few minutes later Craigan was a ready replacement. Jennings saw yellow when he pulled Dayton down and we dug in. Murphy was thrown on for Humphrey to give their defence something to worry about.
Kilmarnock’s attack was toothless though, and despite having to defend a couple of corners we never looked like conceding. Hateley reminded us of his shooting prowess with a good effort inside the closing five minutes and Bell was forced to make a good stop.
A Pascali bullet of a header brought the save of the match from Randolph as Killie threw everything into our box. We held firm and secured a valuable three points – a perfect prelude to the big game ahead.