Watt a Night || Motherwell 2 - 0 Dundee United

A strong performance from Motherwell saw us beat the Tangerine Terrors by two goals.

Everyone to Hampden. Photo credit: Martin Grey.

Evening games hit a little different to the match-going fan. The anticipation of the working day to end so you can make your way with four layers of clothing and three pairs of socks on to watch 22 blokes kick a ball about is tantalising. This game delivered for the Fir Park faithful.

Minutes before kick off, Block E hold a banner titled 'Everyone to Hampden'.

Formations and rotations

Jens Berthel Askou was extremely candid after the weekend's win against Livingston. BBC report that players were dropped from that game, not due to the semi-final preparations, but because of their performances. It's hard to imagine that the semi-final didn't play a part in that decision making, though a few players can't have many complaints after being benched. Accordingly, Askou made 5 changes to the team that beat Livingston.

Elijah Just, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Emmanuel Longelo, Ibrahim Said, and Liam Gordon all made way after the match in West Lothian.

First half sterility

The first half largely saw a sterile Motherwell dominating possession and a Dundee United team that, by their manager's own admission, appeared scared to play. Motherwell began brightly, winning a few consecutive corners though amounting to nothing in the end. As the 'Well began to penetrate the United lines, attention was quickly mounting on the referee after numerous fouls from the Tangerines somehow escaped bookings.

O'Donnell and Koutroumbis were rotating, likely to accommodate the fact they're both more comfortable on the right hand side coupled with Longelo's absence from the starting XI. That was until O'Donnell's game was prematurely ended by a thumping tackle from Sibbald. Despite it being United's second yellow of the game, it felt lenient.

Perhaps that's the tinted specs showing, but the sarcastic applause from the first yellow being given shows it was a common opinion in North Lanarkshire.

Sarcastic applause made way for genuine applause about 7 minutes later, though, as Motherwell finally found the opener in a performance that until then was best described as sterile. After a brief period of ping-pong, the ball broke to Charles-Cook who pressed until Longelo made the overlap. Longelo was then able to drive and ping the ball across to Tawanda Maswanhise whose running and determination was rewarded with a goal on his 50th appearance for the Dossers.

Second half pressure

The second half saw a United side that knew the game was running away from them and mounted the pressure on. Despite their working harder and seeing more of the ball, United were still limited to only one good chance, which really ought to have been put away. The ball fell nicely to United right back Stephenson who hit the post.

Callum Hendry also had a fantastic chance to put the 'Well two goals to the good. His effort was cleared off the line by the United defence, though if it had went in there's a fair chance it would've been pulled back for Maswanhise being in an offside position.

No matter though, as ot too long later, Elliot Watt found space 20 yards from goal and found the net. The powerful curling shot hit the back of the net, all but confirming Motherwell's first set of consecutive victories in the William Hill Premiership this year.

Issue 2 of The Steelmen Dispatch

It would be remiss of us not to say a huge thanks to Ben from Block E for inviting us to sell Issue 2 of The Steelmen Dispatch and for taking this cracking photo.

Issue 2 was on sale last night at FIr Park and will be again before Hampden.

The response to Issue 2 has been great and has really allowed us to reinvest a lot of the profits into a new website, improving our design software for the fanzine, and even donating £100 to the Block E tifo for the semi-final. As ever, £1 from every sale goes directly to The Well Society, which means that by picking up a copy you'll not only be supporting fan-led journalism, you'll also be directly supporting the club too.

Block E have generously allowed us to also sell the fanzine at the Montford pub near Hampden on the day of the match. Their fundraising effort hit the target rapidly, which meant they were able to put excess funds to hosting a pre-match party.

If you've bought a fanzine and want to collect at the Montford, pop us a message. We should be able to accept card this time if you want to buy there, or you can buy with cash too.

See you there.