Motherwell 0
Dundee 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from The Courier .

Almost everything was almost perfect on the trip to Motherwell on Saturday, from the weather to the friendliness at Fir Park. Only the football was almost featureless.

The 0-0 draw produced from Dundee manager Jocky Scott a repeat of the quote, "Not a classic by any means."

He added that Dundee were despondent over dropping a point. He also said, "There was not a lot of good football," That was noted by the punters present and the fact that there was only 2880 of them did not make the fact less pointed.

There were two clear-cut scoring chances, both late in the game.

George McGeachie, operating wide on the right from where he largely controlled the recent game at Falkirk, was not particularly profitable, mainly due to the attention of Fraser Wishart.

But George made one flashing run to challenge keeper John Gardiner, ex-Dundee United, at the outside corner of the goal area.

The Dundee man won the ball cleanly and was able to knock it across the unguarded goal to Ray Stephen at the far post, who put it past the post!

I've never before seen Ray miss a chance like that and I don't expect I will in the future.

There was a long-running contest between ex-Dundee United John Reilly, who knows all about finding positions in space, and Dundee's Jim Smith. Jim won hands down because of persistence and perfect timing in the tackle.

John Brown used a tremendous amount of energy covering every square foot of the park, but a new role was found for him too.

He did not take the free-kicks around the 'Well penalty area. They were taken by Ian Angus who tried to place the ball on Brown's head.

I'd sooner try to prevent big blonde John trying to head the ball than face one of his block buster shots.

The club weakness is the inability to score goals, none in the last three league games, so that is where immediate atten- tion should focus.

If there is not enough in the kitty for new players, who at the club might do it for them?

Not much has been seen of Vince Mennie this season and the investment in his transfer has not produced dividends.

Colin Hendry, who looked so promising but had abominable luck in front of goal at Motherwell last season, missed other chances in other games.

Has he laid his hoodoo?

Jocky Scott may have other ideas.

His team should look livelier against Rangers on Saturday because the crowd should be six times bigger and Dundee often scale their performances to the size of the support.