Motherwell 1-0 Falkirk: Falkirk left weather-beaten as Steelmen make lighter work of the windswept conditions

Published on Saturday 3 October 2009 19:48

Motherwell 1 Jutkiewicz, 18 Falkirk 0

MOTHERWELL kept their place in the top six and sent Falkirk to the bottom of the SPL with a hard-fought victory at a windswept Fir Park yesterday. The sole counter was the first competitive goal in two-and-a-half seasons by on-loan striker Lukas Jutkiewicz, who took his only real chance while Falkirk squandered several.

As they entered the arena, the players and officials were greeted by that peculiarly Scottish phenomenon, horizontal rain. The rain did abate, but an early Motherwell corner showed the strength of the wind, the ball twice being blown yards off the spot.

Playing into the gale, Motherwell played passing football on the ground and got their reward after 18 minutes. By that time, Sean Lynch had already been booked for a cruncher on Ross Forbes, and Carl Finnigan had headed narrowly past John Ruddy's post from a Danijel Marceta free kick.

The opening goal was simplicity itself. In a practised move copied from the league leaders – "Celtic did it the other week with Scott McDonald," said the scorer – the impressive Chris Humphrey hit an inswinging corner from the left and Jutkiewicz ran diagonally into the six-yard box to head the ball past Robert Olejnik.

The ball took a slight deflection but Jutkiewicz was adamant – "it's mine and I'll take them any way they come," said the Everton man, adding that he might well want to stay at Fir Park when his loan deal ends in January.

Falkirk's defence noticeably tightened up after the concession of the goal and were coping with the home side's attacks. They offered little offensive threat themselves, however, Kjartan Finnbogason skying a chance just after the half-hour mark.

Though Humphrey was industrious at the centre of Motherwell's efforts, the home side's play became ragged as they reverted to longer balls rather than their early passing play. Falkirk manager Eddie May sent on Vitor Lima in place of Lynch at the start of the second half. The Portuguese midfielder was immediately involved, firing in a superb shot from 30 yards that went only inches past Ruddy's right-hand post, and Lima-inspired Fakirk proceeded to boss the play.

Mark Stewart replaced the ineffective Finnbogason, and almost made an immediate impact, conjuring up a couple of contenders for the miss of the season. In 67 minutes, Arfield fired in a dipping shot from 25 yards which came back off the bar, Stewart's reaction header missing the open goal and flighting over the bar. The substitute was then just millimetres away from connecting with Finnigan's shot across the face of goal.

It was Stewart again who went close from the edge of the box, his shot beating Ruddy but also the goalkeeper's left-hand post.

Motherwell had hardly been in the game in the second half, thanks mainly to Lima, but another substitute, Jim O'Brien, who came on for Tom Hately, revived the home side with a couple of darting runs, one of them ended illegally by Jackie McNamara who was booked for his pains. O'Brien's short but impressive display was then ended when he was stretchered off after a clash with McNamara, this time accidental.

Falkirk had late appeals for a penalty and one for a goal turned down by referee Euan Norris who judged that Ruddy had kept a Marceta cross-shot out of goal.

Falkirk manager May was thoroughly downcast after the game: "For the second half, we should be getting something out the game."

Motherwell manager Jim Gannon singled out Humphrey's contribution to his team's victory.

The 22-year-old and his partner recently lost their unborn baby and Gannon said: "We gave him a lot of time off to be together during such a difficult period. We want to work him back into the fold."

Gannon agreed that his players abandoned their passing game in the wind and added: "You can't have tactics without techniques.

"When we showed the right techniques, the tactics looked great. When we didn't, it looked like we had no tactics."