BY KYLE GUNN
Motherwell coasted to a 3-0 success over bottom side St Mirren in Paisley last night.
A first-half double from James Scott and a second-half tap in for Allan Campbell handed Stephen Robinson’s side all three points at the Simple Digital Arena
For Jim Goodwin, it was a second successive home loss after Saints failed to get anything against Hibs last Tuesday.
Goodwin’s men came into the game on the back of defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Robinson’s side, meanwhile, beat Saints 2-0 in October and sat fourth coming into this one after a 4-0 hammering of bottom side St Johnstone at the weekend.
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Not much happened in the early stages, with both sides enjoying decent spells on the ball before Saints were forced into an early change with Cammy MacPherson replacing the injured Gary MacKenzie on nine minutes.
But the game burst into life on 28 minutes when Scott put Motherwell ahead with a low drive from the edge of the box.
Scott, who also netted in the previous meeting of the clubs earlier this campaign, doubled his tally for the evening five minutes later when he wasn’t tracked and got one-on-one with Hladky making it 2-0 at half time.
With the score still the same on the hour, the hosts made their second swap of the night as Jon Obika made way for Junior Morias.
Allan Campbell made sure of the spoils seven minutes later when Jermaine Hylton laid it on a plate for the Scotland under-21 after great wing play and it sees St Mirren propping up the league.
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A gutted Goodwin said: “I suppose you could say it was self-inflicted. The goals we gave away were terrible. There was not a lot in the game. It was fairly even but when the first goal went in it seemed to take a lot out of the boys. There was a poor reaction from us.
"Motherwell looked stronger, sharper, and they deserved the victory. Our hearts were in our mouths in the last 15 minutes every time they went forward.
“We were just not at it tonight. I’ve never questioned my players up until now but I’m going to put it down to fatigue. We didn’t look like we had the energy. Maybe the number of games we have had recently have caught up with us. Now we’ve got three huge games coming up and those are the ones we will be judged on.”
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