There was another dose of Motherwell misery for Dundee United to stomach on Wednesday, with the Tangerines going down to their fourth defeat at Fir Park this season.
After knocking United out of both cups, the Steelmen completed the set with their second Lanarkshire league victory.
As they were a week earlier in the Scottish Cup rout, wide men Jamie Murphy and Chris Humphrey were the Tannadice side’s main tormentors, with both grabbing a goal to put ‘Well 2-0 up at half-time.
Johnny Russell pulled one back in the second half and United laid siege to their opponents’ goal as the game drew to a close.
Keeper Darren Randolph was called upon to thwart David Goodwillie deep into stoppage time and deny Peter Houston’s men a deserved comeback point.
The United boss said, “The two goals we lost were bad ones and we were then chasing the game. After that we created enough chances to win it.
“It was like the Alamo in the last half-hour and a combination of bad luck and good goalkeeping kept us out.
“After winning six on the trot it’s a huge disappointment to lose this one.”
Relieved Motherwell manager Stuart McCall said, “It was an outstanding effort from us. We were hanging on at the end and big Daz made a great save to get us the win.”Team changesThere were two changes to the United team that won at Ibrox on Saturday, with Scott Severin making his first start in more than six months and Craig Conway joining him in the starting line-up.
Danny Swanson and Barry Douglas made way and were on the bench. The formation Houston deployed was a 4-4-2.
Motherwell were without cup hero Francis Jeffers, as well as Gavin Gunning and Steve Jennings. United were caught cold by a fired-up ‘Well a week ago, but that wasn’t the case this time as it was the visitors who made the livelier start.
They were first to threaten on six minutes when Conway left Stevie Saunders trailing on the left side of the box before crossing to the near post for Russell. The striker couldn’t manage to direct his header on target, however.
Ten minutes later Russell was back in action when he picked the ball up in midfield and drove at the defence. He shot from just over 20 yards out and Randolph saved low to his right.
Murphy had been a constant nuisance for Keith Watson in the cup match and he glided past the United full-back before cutting the ball back for John Sutton, who saw his shot blocked.
On 26 minutes Murphy decided to go it alone and worked himself some space virtually on the byeline on the left. A lay-off back into the six-yard box looked the most likely option, but the Scotland under-21 international deceived Dusan Pernis by squeezing his shot in at the near post.
Motherwell’s second of the night came four minutes before the break and was an equal mix of great skill and good fortune.
Humphrey showed exquisite close control and blistering pace to take the ball down and beat Paul Dixon and Severin. He then drilled a shot at goal which looped up off Sean Dillon and flew over a back-pedalling Pernis into the net.
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The last action of the half was a well-struck Conway free-kick from nearly 30 yards that flew wide of Randolph’s left-hand post.
Russell nearly got United back into the match two minutes after the restart when he lofted a shot from the edge of the box over Randolph, then watched it just miss the corner of the net.
Houston made a change on 50 minutes by replacing Watson with Garry Kenneth. He joined Severin in the centre of defence and Dillon was shifted out to right-back.
Randolph produced the save of the match three minutes later when he kept out a fierce Scott Robertson 18-yarder low to his right at full stretch.
United’s second and third substitutions came in quick succession on 60 and 65 minutes, when first David Robertson made way for Swanson and then Jon Daly came on for Conway.
On 79 minutes they got the goal that opened the game up. An inswinging Dixon corner from the right was met by Russell, whose glancing header at the near post flashed past Randolph into the net.
They should have equalised just seconds later when Swanson charged into the box, but he shot straight at Randolph.
With four minutes left Russell ghosted in at the back post and hit the side netting with a volley, but even if he’d hit the target the goal wouldn’t have stood as the assistant referee had flagged him offside.
It was all United in the closing stages and Goodwillie fluffed a shot from eight yards with two minutes left on the clock. He was the hero at Ibrox at the death and nearly repeated the trick in stoppage time, only to see a low shot kept out by Randolph.