Motherwell and St Mirren played out a thrilling 3-3 draw in Paisley on Sunday afternoon, as both sides put on a show for the 5,000 fans inside the stadium.
The visitors raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Tawanda Maswanhise and Regan Charles-Cook, with the former also missing a spot kick. But St Mirren showed their fight and turned the game on its head with Paul Nsio, Declan John and Samuel Ramos all scoring in a nine-minute period to swing the game back into Saints’ favour before the interval.
Craig McLeish’s side looked set to pick up their third league win in a row before Jardell Kanga popped up in stoppage-time to dramatically volley home a leveller on his debut.
Following their exit in the UEFA Conference League on Thursday night, Alfred Johansson opted for three changes to his starting 11. Martin Moormann returned to the team after he missed the second leg against Freiburg through suspension, with Tom Sparrow also returning to the starting 11.
Charles-Cook returned to the team also in place of Seb Palmer-Houlden, with new signing Kanga slotted straight onto the bench after he completed his move on Friday.
And the changes seemed to have the desired effect, as Motherwell started the match with a bang. Inside two minutes, Alex Lowry threaded a perfectly judged ball into the channel for Maswanhise to spring onto. Goalkeeper Jacob Chapman came out of his goal to shut down the angle, but the Zimbabwean international cruised passed him before rolling into an empty net.
With the perfect start to proceedings, the hosts seemingly couldn’t cope with a fired-up Motherwell frontline, who were causing the backline all sorts of problems. But then, Alex Gogic created his own issues for his side.
A pass across the defensive line was somewhat overhit, and the Cypriot tried to bring the ball down using his shoulder and chest but misjudged the action and looked to have controlled the ball with his arm. Inside the area, strong, strong claims from the Motherwell players followed, but Kevin Clancy opted to play on, despite the decision looking nailed on. VAR halted play, and once Clancy rewatched the incident, he didn’t hesitate to point to the spot.
Maswanhise strolled up to the spot before kissing the ball and placing it down. Having netted one spot kick already this season against HJK Helsinki, he couldn’t beat the keeper on this occasion, and Charles-Cook was unable to get a shot away on the follow-up. VAR began to check the penalty, and despite Gogic arriving in the box well prior to Maswanhise connecting with the ball, the game continued and the chance went missing.
The Steelmen could have had the wind taken out of them following the disappointment, but the opposite appeared to be true, and they remained firmly on the front foot. Henry Fieldson was caught lagging on the ball, with Maswanhise robbing the defender of possession. He charged forward and tried to reverse a shot with his left foot into the bottom corner, but the ball went wide of the mark.
But four minutes on, Motherwell did have their deserved second. When the ball fell to Charles-Cook on the edge of the box, the Grenadian lined up a strike that whipped straight into the top corner, leaving Chapman with no chance and St Mirren with a mountain to climb.
But climb it they did, with the comeback starting after 39 minutes. Ramos found a neat pass into Agrafiotis, with Lukas Fadinger going down under the challenge, but the ball fell kindly into Nsio’s path, and the midfielder made no mistake, curling a fine finish past Alex Paulsen.
With momentum turning in St Mirren’s favour, they made it count five minutes later when they equalised. Maswanhise was tackled under John, with the St Mirren full-back starting and ending the attacking move. A series of nice passes between the St Mirren players led to John being fed the ball on the left-hand side before finishing past Paulsen.
An action-packed first-half wasn’t finished yet, as the hosts would complete the comeback in stoppage-time. Calvin Ramsay’s free-kick made its way to Ramos, who was unmarked at the back-post area, and he was able to beat Paulsen to spark celebrations in three of the stands in the stadium.
Johansson brought on Stephen O’Donnell at the half-time break, in place of Sparrow as Motherwell looked to get themselves back in the game. Emmanuel Longelo was a constant threat on the left-hand side, with Motherwell becoming used to his creative spark on the wing, and the full-back was unfortunate to see his strike hit the side netting after bursting forward.
Palmer-Houlden was able to latch onto a through ball, but the St Mirren defence was able to recover just in time before the former Dundee man could finish. At the other end, Paulsen produced a number of impressive stops to keep the deficit at just one.
The New Zealand international was able to keep former Motherwell man Eseosa Sule’s effort out, with Jayden Richardson also denied by the keeper. Motherwell continued to push for the leveller, and the introduction of Kanga and Eythor Bjørgolfsson added a different dynamic to Motherwell’s attack.
Lowry went so close to the equaliser with five minutes to go, but Chapman was able to get a fingertip onto the strike to put it over the bar for a corner.
The latter got onto the end of Longelo’s corner but couldn’t keep his header on target. But the big moment came when Jake Young raced clean through on Paulsen’s net, but the keeper was able to keep the forward’s effort out with his feet and kept Motherwell’s glimmer of hope alive.
And in fairytale fashion, Kanga’s big moment arrived on his first appearance. Lowry’s corner was punched clear by Chapman and fell to the Swede on the right-edge of the box; he somehow managed to get his foot over the ball at height to smash into the top corner past three defenders and the keeper. The perfect introduction and a deserved point for Motherwell, as they now look ahead to more Premiership action against Dundee United on Wednesday night.
Motherwell Team: Paulsen, Sparrow, Knight-Lebel, Moormann, Longelo, Fadinger, Hodge, Lowry, Said, Maswanhise, Charles-Cook.
Motherwell Subs: Connelly, Ross, O’Donnell, Williams, Whyte, Kanga, Bjørgolfsson, Vogt, Palmer-Houlden.
