Motherwell have mettle as Porter wins derby

Nov 5 2008 by Graham Miller, Wishaw Press

THE first Lanarkshire league derby for two decades ended in a comfortable 2-0 victory for Motherwell as they moved up into third place in the SPL table.

After a faltering start to their league campaign, the Fir Park club are beginning to show some of the form that earned them a UEFA Cup berth last season, winning four of their previous five outings and amassing the same number of points that they had at this stage last year.

The win, which gave Motherwell revenge for September’s CIS Cup defeat, was achieved through a brace from in-form, Chris Porter.

‘Well boss Mark McGhee made two changes from the team who had triumphed the previous week at Inverness, with skipper Paul Quinn returning from suspension and Mark Fitzpatrick preferred over Jamie Murphy.

Accies started brightly enough and with 10 minutes played, they created the first real chance of the match when Richard Offiong fired in from 12 yards out but Motherwell keeper Graeme Smith got down to save comfortably.

Porter was quick to respond for the home side when, two minutes later, he worked Accies' keeper Tomas Cerny.

As the half-hour mark approached, Bob Malcolm struck a free-kick from 30 yards out, but it lacked power.

Minutes later, the former Rangers man made amends with another dead-ball that this time curved around the Hamilton wall, allowing the predatory Porter to head into the net past the keeper.

The game continued at pace following the restart and Motherwell's John Sutton watched a snapshot strike sail past Cerny's right-hand post in the 50th minute.

Four minutes later, Porter was denied a second when he fired a textbook header off the post.

With an hour played, David Clarkson missed an opportunity to extend the lead for Motherwell when he broke free inside the Hamilton box, but contrived to send his shot wide of the mark.

Porter scored the second six minutes later when he fired a diagonal shot across the face of goal past Cerny to wrap up the points, although the Accies keeper earned himself a yellow card for remonstrating with the referee.

Hamilton never managed to gain a foothold in the match and if Motherwell had converted all their chances the result could have proved embarrassing for Billy Reid’s men, who now find themselves adrift at the foot of the table.

‘Well boss McGhee was pleased with his team’s performance.

He said: “We set ourselves out to play high up the park and be aggressive and I was very pleased with the performance.

“I thought we dominated the game and were worthy of another goal, three-nil would have been a justifiable scoreline.”

Motherwell: Graeme Smith, Quinn (McGarry 85), Malcolm, Reynolds, Hammell, Clarkson, Lasley, Hughes, Fitzpatrick, Porter, Sutton (Murphy 71). Subs Not Used: Nielsen, Darren Smith, O'Brien, Connolly, Page.

Booked: Malcolm, Lasley, Hammell.

Goals: Porter 37, 66.

Hamilton: Cerny, McClenahan, Elebert, Canning, Easton, Mensing, McArthur, Neil (McCarthy 65), Corcoran, Lyle (Ettien 65), Offiong (Thomas 71). Subs Not Used: Murdoch, Gibson, Akins, Graham.

Booked: McArthur, Cerny.

Att: 6,205

Ref: M Tumilty