Motherwell's defeat will prove costly for players

Jim Reynolds

4 Mar 1991

MOTHERWELL were at the weekend summed up as a disgrace by director/manger Tommy McLean, who watched in anguish as his side tossed away a one-goal lead before eventually going down 3-1 to Hearts at Fir Park.

It was more in sorrow than anger that McLean unleashed a verbal broadside afterwards.

He said: "They were a disgrace in the second half and it was a performance that sums up our season.

It has happened so often -- we go in at the interval in good shape, then can't seem to pick up the pace of the game."

Now the Motherwell manager, who has to try and lift the side for this week's match against Aberdeen, is set to hit the players where it hurts most -- in their pockets.

A player loses money when he drops out of the first team and a few Fir Parkers who may have thought they were automatic choices are about to find out differently.

McLean said: "From now on a few of them should start checking the notice board instead of taking anything for granted.

I've been patient enough with them and now it's down to me to start taking action.

"I've talked to them about this attitude of packing away the tools and chucking it as soon

as things go against them.

Obviously, that hasn't done any good, so there's only one course of action left."

It is particularly worrying for the Motherwell manager that his men should have performed as if their season was over when they have a home Scottish Cup quarter-final against Morton coming up.

They have a chance to really make a name for themselves, but a shake-up is necessary to jolt them back into a positive frame of mind.

McLean said: "When the crowd starts walking out with 15 minutes left you've got to ask questions.

This is a depressed area and people are paying good money to come along here.

What they're getting is stop-go football.

That is not acceptable to them and it's certainly not acceptable to me.

We have a duty to these people."

Other managers may have been tempted to hide behind excuses after such a setback.

Motherwell were without top scorers Nick Cusack and Dougie Arnott against Hearts and there was also more than a hint of offside when Wayne Foster equalised a Jim Griffin goal right on the stroke of half-time.

"We have no excuses," said McLean.

"That would be taking the easy way out.

The players should look at themselves and question their application."

Yet until Foster's equaliser Motherwell had looked reasonably comfortable: solid at the back and eager to have a go at a Hearts side who seemed to have difficulty in getting any sort of rhythm going.

But what a transformation after the interval.

Hearts picked themselves up, Motherwell went into hiding, and at the end of the day the points deservedly went to Tynecastle.

Foster set up the second goal with a great burst of pace down the right and a low cross which John Robertson tucked away with precision, and with fifteen minutes left Robertson set up the chance for Jimmy Sandison to score his first premier-division goal for the club.

The win leaves Hearts with an outside chance of qualifying for Europe, but in the coming days more interest will be focused on Motherwell and how they go about getting themselves into the right shape for their Scottish Cup bid.

Taken from the Herald