’Well worth a point

May 21 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

MOTHERWELL and Inverness battled out a 2-2 draw at Fir Park last Wednesday.

Inverness nearly scored early on when after only half-clearing the ball, ’Well keeper Graeme Smith chased it fully 30 yards from goal. His diving header landed at the feet of Dougie Imrie, whose shot was cleared off the line by Mark Reynolds.

But Motherwell grabbed the opener in 27 minutes when Stevie Hammell’s corner was met with a powerful header by Brian McLean and flew past Michael Fraser via a post.

Inverness levelled in 40 minutes when Imrie left Hammell in his wake to reach the bye-line and cut back for Filipe Morais to drill low past Smith from eight yards.

Thistle were keen to build on their goal and Smith had to react quickly to keep out a 20-yard effort from Morais.

But the keeper was helpless in 56 minutes when Lionel Djebi-Zadi found space on the left and his back post cross was volleyed high into the net by Imrie.

Rather than consolidate their lead nerves seemed to get the better of Inverness and Motherwell dragged themselves back into the game, equalising with 11 minutes remaining.

David Clarkson collected a throw-in on the right of the box, headed along the bye-line and picked out Maros Klimpl, who laid the ball into the path of John Sutton to sweep home from eight yards.

Inverness could have grabbed a winner just a minute later when Richie Foran latched onto a long ball and clipped the ball over Smith, but again Reynolds was able to clear.

MOTHERWELL: G. Smith, Quinn, McLean, Reynolds, Hammell, Lasley (Klimpl, 53), Hughes, O’Brien, Murphy (Fitzpatrick, 73), Sheridan (Sutton, 66), Clarkson. Subs (not used): Krysiak, Malcolm, McGarry, Hutchinson.