Steelmen are held by Killie

Mar 26 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

MOTHERWELL missed an opportunity to consolidate their push for a European place when they were held to a goalless draw at Rugby Park on Saturday.

It wasn’t exactly a vintage SPL encounter in front of a lunchtime 5434 crowd, with neither side finding any fluency and struggling to find team-mates in a dour first half.

This resulted in few chances of note, with Killie’s best effort coming from a setpiece which allowed Kevin Kyle to win a flick-on but the big striker was starved of any real service.

Kilmarnock carved out a couple of half-chances, with Garry Hay sending a weak effort wide, before David Fernandez was off-target with a header.

At the other end, Cillian Sheridan should have done better than head a Stephen Hughes cross wide.

The opening stages of the second half saw Motherwell on the attack but Jim O’Brien volleyed wide.

Killie threatened when Mark Reynolds pulled Mehdi Taouil down on the edge of the box but Fernandez’s free-kick crashing off the wall before Hay blasted the rebound well over.

Kilmarnock were looking more likely and went close when Graeme Smith was forced into a save to keep out Manuel Pascali’s header.

Motherwell threw on David Clarkson for Brian McLean and shortly afterwards Maros Klimpl saw a shot saved by Alan Combe.

In the dying minutes, Clarkson had a great chance to seal the points for Motherwell when he latched onto a poor clearance from Steven Hammell’s corner but his shot from just outside the box was just too high.

Motherwell: G. Smith, Quinn, Reynolds, Craigan, Hammell, Hughes, Klimpl (Lasley, 85), McLean (Clarkson, 64), O’Brien, Sutton, Sheridan (McGarry, 72). Subs (not used): Coutts, Malcolm, Murphy, Fitzpatrick.