Quinn sees red as Dons dump ’Well

Dec 4 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

LACKLUSTRE Motherwell were easily swept aside by Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday.

Compounding their misery, the Steelmen were reduced to 10 men as they slumped to third-bottom of the SPL.

Following last week’s humiliation against Hibs, manager Mark McGhee made a number of changes, bringing in Slovakian centre-back Maros Klimpl for his debut and pushing Bob Malcolm into midfield.

Neither side were able to get into their stride during a poor first half, although Dons keeper Jamie Langfield was forced into saves from Keith Lasley and Malcolm.

Had Jamie Murphy done better than blast over after latching onto a neat head-flick by Chris Porter, Motherwell could have taken an unlikely lead into the interval.

Aberdeen were forced into a change when Andrew Considine was injured while blocking a Porter shot, and his replacement Gary McDonald opened the scoring in 61 minutes with his second touch, latching onto an inviting Sone Aluko cross to bullet a header past Graeme Smith.

Six minutes later, Aberdeen wrapped up the points when Paul Quinn was caught on the wrong side of Darren Mackie and could only bring the striker down in the box.

Referee Chris Boyle pointed to the spot, red-carded Quinn for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity and Lee Miller stepped up to take the spot-kick.

Motherwell goalkeeper Smith was booked for stupidly throwing water on the ball in a bid to put him off but Miller sank the penalty.

It was damage limitation for Motherwell from that point on, and Aberdeen were unlucky not to add to their tally.

Motherwell: G. Smith, Quinn, Hammell, Reynolds, Malcolm, Klimpl, Lasley, Fitzpatrick, Hughes, Murphy (Saunders, 67), Porter. Subs (not used): Nielsen, Sutton, McGarry, McHugh, Hutchinson, Page.