FRUSTRATED Motherwell manager Mark McGhee admitted his players have yet to find their cutting edge – but insisted their slow start won't stop his side repeating their UEFA Cup exploits of last season.
A Charlie Mulgrew strike four minutes from tim
e earned Aberdeen a vital three points and, more importantly, only their second victory away from home since the start of this year.
However, the result left McGhee's side pointless after their opening two matches of the new SPL campaign and with four already marked in the goals-against column in the table.
McGhee, who was surrounded by controversy in the summer when he performed a late U-turn over the Hearts manager's job, created another stir with his programme notes when admitting that the club's foray into Europe this season could stretch their resources to the limit.
However, he felt that the performance at Fir Park was much improved on last weekend's defeat to Hearts in the Capital and that if his side can just rediscover their cutting edge again they won't be far away from the battle for a European spot again.
He said: "Defensively we were certainly better than against Hearts last week, but the bottom line is that to win games you have to score goals.
"It's not rocket science, things just weren't quite good enough around the edge of the box – the cutting edge was missing and I see things that if we can improve on, we would have won a game like that.
"It's frustrating to have that much possession and territory and not convert it into a win.
"We had one or two chances that we should have scored, the players know that and have admitted as much. It is early in the season and I'm not concerned that suddenly everything's changed."
McGhee gave youngster Jamie Murphy and Marc Fitzpatrick a start against the Dons, with Bob Malcolm and Steven McGarry dropping onto the bench.
The visitors also made changes to their side, manager Jimmy Calderwood bringing Darren Mackie and Zander Diamond in for Jeffrey de Visscher and Chris Maguire, while the Dons boss was forced to replace Jamie Smith, who had fallen ill, with Derek Young.
After last year's problems, the Fir Park pitch was in decent condition again, but for 84 minutes it was the match which failed to live up to its billing.
Murphy had Well's two best efforts in a poor first half, the best of them coming from a Fitzpatrick through ball and it looked as though the teenager would open his account, but he could only produce a weak effort which Jamie Langfield comfortably held.
The Dons packed men behind the ball and their counter-attacking policy almost paid off when Mark Kerr set Gary McDonald free with half an hour gone, but his left-foot shot was brilliantly blocked by Graeme Smith, who stood up well to palm the ball away from danger.
After the break Motherwell twice went close and both times the threat was provided by a Steven Hammell corner, the first sent wide of the post by Stephen Hughes and the second thwarted by a reflex stop from Langfield.
They were made to pay for those missed chances, however few and far between, when the Dons snatched the points with just a few minutes of normal time remaining.
The visitors were awarded a free-kick after Keith Lasley had mistimed a tackle and Mulgrew didn't need asking twice as he stepped up to drill the dead ball low into the bottom left-hand corner of the net from 25 yards.
Calderwood was delighted with Mulgrew's winner, but revealed that it had taken a half-time roasting to fire the former Celtic player into action.
He said: "Charlie has got that quality – we were doing free-kicks and corners yesterday and his delivery was fantastic. He got a rollicking for the first-half effort, which was a joke for his quality, but he can be very dangerous.
"We can play a lot better, and Motherwell can, but it's a vital win because we lost 14 away games last season and it cost us dearly in the end and you have got to come to very difficult venues and scrape and scratch."
Motherwell: G Smith, Quinn, Hammell, Reynolds, Craigan, Hughes, Porter, Clarkson, Lasley, Murphy (D Smith 59), Fitzpatrick (O'Brien 90). Unused subs: Nielsen, Malcolm, McGarry, Connolly, Wilson.
Aberdeen: Langfield, Mulgrew, Foster* (booked 33 foul on Clarkson), McDonald, Diamond (Duff 21), Severin, Young, Kerr, Miller (Wright 69), Mackie, Considine. Unused subs: Bossu, De Visscher, Maquire, Smith.
Referee: Steve Conroy
Attendance: 5872
The full article contains 774 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
