Dundee United earned their first League win in six games thanks to Kjell
Oloffson's 78th-minute strike.
It was a dreadful goal from Motherwell's point of view.
Despite United's pressure, The Well were looking like earning one point until
Eddie May and keeper Steve Woods left a harmless ball to each other and Olofsson
nipped in to steer the ball into the empty net for his 15th strike of the
season.
Motherwell were very disappointing after last week's sparkling display which
had earned them their biggest win for 15 years but they only had one credible
effort during the 90 minutes.
Although United will be delighted to put some distance between them and the
relegation area their lack of striking power will still be a worry for manager
Tommy McLean, although to be fair keeper Steve Woods had an inspired game apart
from the goal that is.
United should have gone ahead after only 25 seconds when an Olofsson header
gave Robbie Winters the first of his many chances but the striker was thwarted
by keeper Woods, who did well to narrow his angle and block his 14-yard effort.
United were on top right from the start and an Olofsson freekick gave Cameroon
international Jean Jacques Misse-Misse a chance, but his glancing header drifted
just past the far post.
Woods again did well when Olofsson fired a 25-yard freekick towards his
left-hand post but the keeper should have had no chance on the half-hour mark.
The impressive Jamie Bolan picked out Lars Zetterlund with a pin-point cross
but from 10 yards the Swedish midfielder headed the ball wide.
Continuous pressure earned United another chance when Magnus Skoldmark got to
the byline and his near post cross was hooked over the bar by Winters from close
range.
As half-time approached Woods kept the scoreline blank with a brilliant save
from an Olofsson effort from the edge of the box after Skoldmark had set him
up.
United continued where they left off after the interval.
Although a Winters cut-back was cleared by Ian Ross from the resultant corner
the ball broke to the United striker, but he took too long to control the ball
and ex-Norwich defender Rob Newman cleared.
Winters again had a glorious chance when he raced Woods for a pass back by
Ross but although he lobbed the ball over the keeper the ball also cleared the
crossbar by a considerable margin.
United almost got a fright in the 59th minute when Motherwell had their only
real chance of the game.
Substitute Lee McCulloch fired in a cross for Willie Falconer to head for goal
but although keeper Sieb Dykstra was beaten veteran defender Maurice Malpas
popped up on the line to head clear.
Then came the United goal and with 10 minutes to go United could have made it
two.
Misse-Misse sent a glorious through ball for Olofsson to run on to but
although his shot was firm it was also straight and the keeper had little
difficulty in keeping it out.
With nine minutes to go the single booking of the game came when Newman was
yellow carded for a crunching tackle on Skoldmark at the edge of the visitors
box.
Teams
Dundee Utd: Dykstra, Skoldmark, Malpas, Pressley, Perry,
Pedersen, Olofsson, Zetterlund, Winters (McLaren 68), Dolan,
Misse-Misse.
Subs Not Used: McSwegan, McKinnon.
Goals: Olofsson 68.
Motherwell: Woods, May, Ross, Newman, Christie, Falconer,
Weir (McCulloch 46), Garcin, Coyne, Arnott (McMillan 52), Coyle.
Subs Not Used: Philliben.
Booked: Newman.
Att: 6,532
Ref: G Clyde (Bearsden).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook