The Road to Hampden - Round 4

As we close in on the Cup Final with Celtic on Saturday we will look back at the games that got us there, starting with a trip to Dens Park on 9th January.

When we were drawn to play Dundee in the fourth round many felt this would be a tie Motherwell could slip up in. Well had lost Alan Gow, Nick Blackman and Marc Fitzpatrick without being able to replace them.

Dundee had not lost in six games in the First Division and hadn’t lost in a year at Dens Park, while Motherwell had been struggling and hadn’t won in seven.

But all the changes meant returns for both John Sutton and Jamie Murphy and these two tormented Dundee all afternoon. Sutton had Motherwell ahead in only a matter of minutes as he flicked home a Murphy cross.

The remainder of the first half was a poor affair but Motherwell effectively sealed the tie early in the second half, and once again Murphy was the provider and Sutton the scorer. Murphy chipped the ball over the defence to allow Sutton a clean run on Rab Douglas to score.

Two goals in the final ten minutes, from Jennings and Murphy, put the icing on the cake and emphasised the gap between the top half of the SPL and the top half of the First Division.

Manager was delighted with the introduction of Murphy and the role he played on the day, "I said before the game we wanted to get Murph down the side of people and then we've got to be physically up for the challenge and hopefully our quality will come through, if you see the quality of the goals it certainly did."

Motherwell side: Randolph, Hateley, Reynolds, Craigan, Hammell, Humphrey, Lasley (Forbes – 85), Jennings, Murphy (McHugh – 89), Sutton. Subs not used: Hollis, Hutchison, Casagolda.

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