It was a night to forget for Motherwell on Tuesday night, as Alfred Johansson’s side lost 4-0 at Fir Park against Aberdeen.
A first-half strike from Gavin Molloy had the visitors in front at the interval. Aberdeen doubled their advantage inside 60 seconds of the restart through Connor Ronan, with Ayoub Mouloua and Kevin Nisbet adding further pain on a sore night in ML1.
Following the free weekend, Motherwell just had one change in their starting 11 to that of the side that faced Rangers ten days ago. Jardell Kanga replaced Ibrahim Said in the team as the Steelmen looked for three points.
The first attempt arrived after six minutes when half a dozen players were involved in moving the ball to the edge of the visitor’s box, but Alex Lowry slipped as his shot trundled towards Marius Muller.
Midway through the half, a great through ball sent Regan Charles-Cook racing into the box, but before he could get a shot away, Malloy had muscled him off the ball.
Then, just before the half-hour mark, Muller was forced into his first real save, diving low to his right to push Emmanuel Longelo’s powerful angled drive round his near post.
Nisbet then threatened Paulsen’s goal with a thumping drive from 30 yards, which had the keeper diving across his goal, but the ball swung away from the target.
Five minutes later, the Motherwell stopper was beaten with another long-range effort. Former Steelman Chris Cadden crossed into a packed box before it found Malloy lingering 25 yards from the goal, and his sweet left-foot drive flew across the turf and inside Paulsen’s right-hand post.
Two minutes from the break, Lowry tried to replicate Malloy’s effort, but about the same distance from Muller’s goal, his left foot shot was narrowly off target.
Before Johansson’s half-time team talk could be implemented, his side were two down and facing an uphill struggle.
Within 30 seconds of the restart, Aberdeen headed towards Paulsen’s goal following a mix-up in possession, and when Ronan let fly from 20 yards, the ball took a wicked deflection off Martin Moorman and sent it high past his helpless keeper.
The Fir Park men were dealt another blow seven minutes later when Maswanhise limped off with Seb Palmer-Houlden coming on to lead the line. The Motherwell boss also took the opportunity to bring on the threat of Said for Kanga.
As Motherwell pushed forward to get back into the game and the Dons were defending their box in numbers, another double substitution was made after 67 minutes: Dylan Levitt bringing his experience to the middle of the park and Willy Vogt his pace out wide.
It was almost the perfect response when the Motherwell winger whipped the ball into the six-yard box only for Palmer-Houlden to head over, but the Motherwell crowd reacted as they hoped for a comeback.
The last throw of the dice and substitution arrived 15 minutes from the time when Eythor Bjorgolfsson replaced Lowry. And although the towering Norwegian got an immediate touch to try and set up his fellow striker, the killer touch came at the other end.
Stuart Armstrong hoisted the ball into the Motherwell half to send Mouloua racing towards Paulsen’s goal. Motherwell’s backline managed to chase back and get goal side, but the forward shifted the ball onto his right foot and smashed into the top corner in wicked fashion. 3-0 and game over.
It would be 4-0 before the final whistle. Nisbet found himself on the ball on the right edge of the penalty area, and the Aberdeen skipper made no mistake with the finish as the ball kissed off the inside of the post to complete a disappointing evening for the Steelmen.
Motherwell Team: Paulsen, Sparrow, Girdwood-Reich, Moormann, Longelo, Hodge, Fadinger, Lowry, Kanga, Maswanhise, Charles-Cook.
Motherwell Subs: Connelly, O’Donnell, Knight-Lebel, Williams, Levitt, Said, Bjørgolfsson, Palmer-Houlden, Vogt.
