FITZPATRICK SPARED PENALTY DILEMMA

Motherwell goal hero Marc Fitzpatrick admitted he was thinking of how he might fare in a penalty shoot-out just before he scored his last-gasp winner against Hearts in their dramatic CIS Insurance Cup semi-final.

Well defender Stephen Craigan and midfielder Richie Foran netted to give the Steelmen a seemingly comfortable cushion at Easter Road.

But in the last five minutes of an exciting tussle, Jambos substitutes Mark Burchill and Halmar Thorarinsson both grabbed their first goals for the Tynecastle men to send the tie into extra time.

However, just when it looked as though the game would be decided by spot-kicks, Fitzpatrick fired home the winner in the final minute of extra time to set up a meeting with either Rangers or Dundee United at Hampden in March.

The 18-year-old, who came on with 15 minutes of normal time remaining in place of Jim Paterson, claims he was gearing up for penalties when Scott McDonald set him up for an angled drive from 14 yards, his first goal for the Fir Park club.

He said: "I was thinking whether I was going to be taking a penalty and where I was going to put it. I would have volunteered.

"But when the chance came I just put my head down, shot, and the ball was in the back of the net.

"It was an unbelievable feeling. It was my first goal for the club and I couldn't have picked a better time because I had missed a couple of sitters in previous games.

"I never thought that game was beyond us when they pulled it back to 2-2 because we still had extra-time to go through.

"Obviously we thought we had the game won and we then needed extra-time so we had to get our heads right and get on with it.

"The manager just told us to get at them and go for the goal and that's what we did.

"It's great for the club to get into the final and hopefully we'll get the trophy."

Motherwell defender Steven Hammell praised Fitzpatrick for his coolness in front of goal.

"He missed a good chance against Hibs a couple of months ago, similar to the one he had against Hearts," said Hammell.

"The score was 1-1 and when the ball got played through to him, he missed it.

"But when he went through this time he showed great composure and character to put it away because it was a hard chance and that miss might have been preying on his mind."

Hammell was booked early in the first half, his second yellow card in the competition and the Scotland under-21 player is hoping that it will be confirmed that he will not miss the Hampden final.

He said: "We asked a couple of people in the office to check up and they said it was three bookings so I'll be gutted if they're wrong. It wasn't preying on my mind but it is now!"

Hearts' new striker Burchill admits the disappointment of losing so cruelly meant scoring his first goal for the Gorgie side left him with a bitter-sweet feeling.

He said: "We're absolutely gutted and the boys are distraught after the way we got back into the game.

"To get my first goal for Hearts was brilliant and I was involved in the second so at that point in the game I was absolutely delighted. But to come off as a loser, what can I say, I'm gutted.

"I think we were the better team but it's whoever puts the ball in the net the most wins and unfortunately for us Motherwell did that."

Taken from sportinglife.com