Motherwell vs St Mirren. Scottish Premiership.
Report as Lukas Fadinger's penalty ends Motherwell's seven-match winless run; narrow defeat leaves St Mirren eighth, one place above their hosts
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Lukas Fadinger's late penalty brought Motherwell's seven-game winless run to an end and delivered three much-needed Scottish Premiership points against out-of-sorts St Mirren.
A host of chances were passed up by Alfred Johansson's men during a dominant display, which would have brought greater reward had they discovered a clinical touch in front of goal before the spot-kick as they moved into ninth spot on the table.
Saints dropped down to eighth as Craig McLeish's side, whose recent poor run of form continues.
The Lanarkshire side should have been ahead in the 10th minute when Tawanda Maswanhise was allowed time and space to fire in a shot from 18 yards, but he wildly blasted the effort high over the crossbar.
Another golden opportunity arrived moments later when a low cross from Emmanuel Longelo had Maswanhise racing towards the far post and the Zimbabwean was inches away from converting.
That sustained pressure on the Saints goal continued unabated in an impressive opening by Well, who forced a series of corners with the Buddies being swamped by waves of attacks.
Tom Sparrow then reacted first to a loose ball at the edge of the box and his shot was parried wide by visiting goalkeeper Jacob Chapman as the hosts piled on the pressure.
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It may have been wasteful by the hosts, but the invention and creative spark down the flanks and from midfield was a much-needed return to the style which the Fir Park side had been serving up earlier in the campaign.
Ibrahim Said was next to miss a glaring chance when he steered a shot straight at Chapman when clean through in the 24th minute.
Saints had been let off the hook, but the Paisley side struggled to get themselves properly into the contest in a first half of little promise that they could breach the Motherwell goal as Joe Hodge went into the book for a lunge on Ryan Carr just before the break.
Martin Moormann rattled a volley inches over the top just seconds after the restart as the traffic continued to flow towards St Mirren's goal before Marcus Fraser saw yellow for a professional foul in the 52nd minute.
Another clear Motherwell miss came on the hour mark with Said swivelling inside the box and, from 16 yards, dragged the effort wide when he should have been busting the net.
St Mirren began building some pressure of their own in a bid to claim a smash-and-grab three points, but those hopes ended eight miutes from time as referee Don Robertson pointed to the spot after a VAR check for a Henry Fieldson handball.
Fadinger slammed home to secure a long-awaited for Motherwell and their under-pressure manager.
"Even more than relief, I felt good, happy, joy, determination. This group has done really well lately and I think it's very well deserved to get the victory and have at least four points from these last two games.
"It's important to build on it, the most important thing today [Saturday] is that we didn't give away easy goals or big chances at all.
"We kept St Mirren so quiet and that means for me the way we were fighting in the second half but also how we did the first 60 minutes, how we were defending even before we made the changes.
"I think we were very solid defensively and we were also pressing well, and we were forcing long balls off them. Defensively there was a lot of solidity and that's something we definitely need to continue to build on.
"Offensively, we still need to improve how we convert those chances and create even more. St Mirren boss Craig McLeish:
"It's a frustrating one as we thought we did enough to take a point and we were trying to be tough to break down.
"We need to play with more freedom and maybe there's a bit of scarring from the recent run we have been on as we didn't ask enough questions offensively of Motherwell.
"We can't be relying on clean sheets to pick up points, we need to be a threat,
"But we will work on that and that is the message, players are getting opportunities and people need to step up."
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