Scottish Cup: Motherwell 6 - 0 Morton: Rampant ‘Well demolish Morton

By EWING GRAHAME
Published on Sunday 5 February 2012 00:00

MOTHERWELL secured a place in the last eight of the Scottish Cup with a victory even more emphatic than the scoreline might suggest.

The key to springing a cup upset is to start strongly and open the scoring: unfortunately for Morton, they were found wanting on both counts here, turning in a display which was so poor as to be embarrassing.

Goalkeeper Colin Stewart almost gifted the hosts a fourth-minute lead when he miscontrolled a passback from Marc Smyth and prodded the ball to Jamie Murphy 12 yards out.

Perhaps unable to believe his good fortune, the winger, who turned down a move to the Championship with Blackpool on deadline day, sliced his shot into the side netting with the goal gaping.

Four minutes later, Murphy turned provider, sending Nicky Law clear only for Stewart to deflect the midfielder’s effort behind.

Tom Hateley’s corner was inswinging and, with Morton’s defenders leaving it to each other, the ball curled into the net at the near post.

“That’s the first time I’ve done that as a professional, although I did it playing for Chelsea’s Under-10s,” he said.

“Our gaffer tells me to try and shoot when we have a corner so I did and when no-one touched it I was left standing there with a smile on my face.”

When Estonian striker Henrik Ojaama hit the post with an angled drive 60 seconds later the First Division club must have felt like declaring at 1-0 but they stuck to their task.

Unfortunately for them, Motherwell showed few signs of letting up and the visitors’ inability to defend set plays saw the Steelmen build an unassailable lead before the break.

Another Hateley corner was met by Michael Higdon and, although his header was touched on to the bar by Stewart, Murphy was first to react to the rebound and nodded home from point-blank range.

Shaun Hutchinson was next to benefit, the central defender stooping to head another Hateley corner inside the keeper’s left-hand post. McCall argues that Ojaama isn’t a goalscorer but the statistics say otherwise: his angled drive from 15 yards beat Stewart and gave him his fifth goal in six appearances.

Law rarely troubles the statisticians but he claimed his second goal of the season after Ojaama’s perfectly-weighted pass sprung Morton’s offside trap.

Morton’s fans had begun leaving after half an hour: those who remained suffered further indignity when substitute Derek Young was shown a yellow card for simulation.

Even so, Motherwell extended their advantage midway through the second half when Murphy, who had supplied Chris Humphrey with a magnificent cross-field pass, was on hand to fire the winger’s low cross home from 12 yards.

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Alastair the First

Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 12:33 PM

The incident which you refer top as simulation by Derek Young was a clear penalty as the Motherwell defender was beaten and pulled him back. It was right in front of me. The ref bottled it, as he did when a Motherwell defender passed back to his keeper who had to catch the ball to stop it going in his own net - the ref failed to award the free kick for handling a passback, and also ignored a kickout by the Morton keeper being blocked by a forward standing right in front of him as he tried to kick it from hand. Terrible refereeing, although not as terrible as the appalling display by Morton's fragile central defence. Allan Moore clearly was a striker and not a defender because he hasn't got a clue how to set out a defence or even which players to put in it so that it works. A promising season has turned into a disatrously incompetent one.

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