Motherwell won their final home match of the 2024/25 campaign against Kilmarnock on Wednesday night, registering a comfortable 3-0 win.
Kilmarnock were reduced to ten men in the first-half, with Robbie Deas shown a straight red following a VAR review for bringing down Lennon Miller, who was through on goal. From there, the Steelmen dominated proceedings but had to be patient for their opening goal.
Substitute Luke Armstrong found the back of the net on 77 minutes before Callum Slattery scored his seventh of the season just six minutes later. Armstrong was it again on 86 minutes, putting the icing on the cake with a third.
Michael Wimmer made two changes from the side that were defeated by Hearts just four days ago. Harry Paton and Ewan Wilson were brought into the starting 11 in place of Tawanda Maswanhise and Dom Thompson.
There weren’t many clear-cut chances in the early stages of the match. Tom Sparrow saw his header drift wide of the mark from a Wilson cross in what was Motherwell’s best chance thus far.
On 29 minutes, Miller latched onto a neat through-ball and was brought down by Deas just outside the area. Originally shown a yellow card by Duncan Nicholson, VAR recommended an on-field review. After reviewing the footage, the Killie man was shown a red card for the denial of a goalscoring opportunity.
The subsequent free kick was hit on target by Miller but didn’t trouble Kieran O’Hara. As the first half edged closer to its conclusion, Kilmarnock had their best chance of the half. Danny Armstrong fizzed a free kick up and over the wall but was denied by a flying Aston Oxborough, who produced a wonderful stop to prevent the ball from finding the top corner.
During the half time interval, Wimmer made an alteration, introducing Armstrong to the action in place of Harry Paton. Motherwell began the half strongly and were dominating possession. Tony Watt was unfortunate not to find the back of the net on 50 minutes, with the Dundee United loanee sneaking in at the back post to get on the end of Stephen O’Donnell’s cross; however, O’Hara was a match for his effort.
That sparked everyone in Fir Park, and Motherwell turned it up a gear. Callum Slattery was next to try his luck, with the number eight fizzing an effort on target, but O’Hara was able to punch it clear.
Andy Halliday came agonisingly close to the opener just after the hour mark, trying to curl a low strike towards the far post, but the 33-year-old didn’t find the target.
The chances kept on coming for the hosts, with Armstrong’s deflected effort almost finding the net on 66 minutes. Substitute Moses Ebiye thought he had the opening goal from Miller’s corner delivery, but keeper O’Hara managed to claw the ball away from danger.
Time continued to pass by with Motherwell still left frustrated at not breaking the deadlock. But their patience and dominance eventually paid off when, at 77 minutes, skipper O’Donnell curled an inviting cross into the danger zone where L.Armstrong was primed to bullet a header past O’Hara. 1-0.
The pressure eased, but the intensity increased, and Motherwell went hunting for more. Slattery continued his high-flying end to the campaign, with the midfielder executing a perfectly guided finish into the bottom corner. Game over and 2-0 to the Well.
L.Armstrong managed to grab his fourth goal in Motherwell’s corner on 86 minutes, smashing a strike beyond the keeper to put the cherry on the cake.
The perfect end for the Steelmen’s home campaign this season, with Wimmer still yet to taste defeat in ML1.
Motherwell Team: Oxborough, Sparrow, Casey, O’Donnell, Seddon, Wilson, Halliday, Miller, Paton, Slattery, Watt.
Motherwell Subs: Balcombe, Zdravkovski, Maswanhise, Tavares, Dickson, Andrews, Ebiye, Thompson, Armstrong.
