Venue: Fir Park                                                                     Date: 05/01/25                                                          Time: 15:00pm

Aberdeen’s recent woes continued as they fell to their 10th consecutive game without a victory, dropping into fourth and only four points ahead of Motherwell.

Having been dominant throughout the first half, the home side were rewarded for their efforts when Ewan Wilson lashed home a ball the Dons had failed to clear.

Desperately needing a result, Jimmy Thelin’s men did themselves no favours as Slobodan Rubezic reacted to Tony Watt’s provocations, making head contact to earn himself a straight red.

Taking full advantage of the numerical advantage, Motherwell scored just two minutes later through Tawanda Maswanhise

Motherwell could have opened the scoring sooner when Andy Halliday’s curling long ball found on the head of an oncoming Dan Casey who lifted his hands in disbelief after putting the effort wide.

Similarly Aberdeen had chances of their own, Nicky Devlin leapt into the air to head in an corner but Aston Oxborough did ever so well to deny the Scotland international.

Looking improved with ten men, the visitors continued to probe for an opener, Duk guilty of not setting himself correctly to put away a ball Topi Keskinen sent skimming across the turf.

Leighton Clarkson came closest, his effort from distance beating Oxborough but rattling the crossbar and bouncing away.

Late on Maswanhise saw his effort fly low past Kris Doohan’s left hand side but by then game looked over as Motherwell secured their first win in five.

Attendance: 5,308

Line-Ups:

Motherwell (3-4-2-1): A. Oxborough, D. Casey, L. Gordon (c), K. Balmer (P. McGinn 86’), E. Wilson, A. Halliday, D. Zdravkovski (T. Sparrow 78’), M. Kaleta, T. Watt (C. Slattery 86’), T. Maswanhise (S. Nicholson 78’), M. Ebiye (J. Vale 68’)

Substitutes: S. Blaney, K. Hegyi, J. Koutroumbis, P. McGinn, S. Nicholson, S. O’Donnell, C. Slattery, T. Sparrow, J. Vale

Aberdeen (4-3-3): R. Doohan, J. MacKenzie (J. McGarry 72’), A. MacDonald (L. Clarkson 46’), S. Rubezic, N. Devlin, G. Shinnie (c), S. Heltne Nilsen, A. Palaversa (P. Ambrose 80’), Duk, K. Nisbet (D. Polvara 46’), T. Keskinen (S. Morris 72’)

Substitutes: P. Ambrose, F. Boyd, V. Enem, J. McGarry, J. McGrath, S. Morris, L. Clarkson, D. Polvara, T. Ritchie

Referee: Nick Walsh