LET's be honest. Not many fans would stick around for too long if they found their team down 2-4 at halftime, but those who did last night at Fir Park where rewarded for their loyalty as Motherwell clawed back a 2-6 deficit to earn a valuable point in a thrilling 6-6 draw against Hibs.
It's not the first time this season that Motherwell found themselves at the end of a drubbing (they lost 6-1 to Rangers in back in December, two weeks before Rangers got onto the record books again with a 7-1 spanking of Dundee United), but at least in this game they showed some spunk (steady!).
There was actually a lot to play for in this fixture: a win for Motherwell would have secured European football for Craig Brown's men (they'd enter the Europa League Second qualifying round), while a win for Hibs would have lifted them two points clear of the Steelmen into fourth place.
John Hughes must be feeling the pressure. His Hibees have never dropped out of the top five all season and until March where doing a good job keeping up with Celtic in second place. But a run of games that has seen them without a win in their last six games and which included heavy defeats to St Johnstone and Accies had dropped them out of the running. If the message boards are to be believed, Hibs fans are getting restless, with plenty of threads calling for Hughes to be sacked.
The Scottish Football Blog has more on this game, including all twelve goals!
Fans of Aberdeen where again rewarded for their endurance by watching another set of happy, cheering away-supporters make their way up the west side of the South Stand after the final whistle. The Dons' season took another lurch towards the comically tragic when they do what they're good at, namely taking a lead and then sitting back and letting their opponents out-score them.
The 2-1 defeat at home to Kilmarnock is the latest in a series of pitiful performances that should hopefully spell the end for the majority of the current Aberdeen squad. The irony in this game are legion, namely:
» Kilmarnock have won only 8 games all season, two of those coming against Aberdeen;
» Killie have only scored six away goals all season, with two of those coming against Aberdeen last night;
» the winning goal was scored by Kevin Kyle, a player Aberdeen are trying to sign.
For the 6,000-odd supporters making their way down Pittodrie Street for this game was just another low point in the season. McGhee has promised wholesale changes over the summer, but I don't believe a word of it. Judging by his signings this season (Nelson, Paterson, MacLean, Ifil, Marshall, Grassi and Ross) there's really not much to look forward to next season either.
The goal-cavalcade at Fir Park more than made up for the lack of goals in the remaining games in the SPL last night.
Falkirk's goalless draw against St Johnstone made the prospects of their SPL survival that little bit harder. The Bairns went into the game level on points with Kilmarnock, but with Killie winning at Pittodrie, next Saturday sees the battle for survival go down to the wire. Steven Pressley promised at the start of his tenure as Falkirk manager to keep the Bairns in the SPL, a promise he could still make good if he beats Kilmarnock at the weekend.
Dundee United and Hearts played out a 0-0 draw at Tynecastle that finally killed of Hearts' hopes of European football. Unless Hearts beat Celtic 11-0 next weekend and Dundee United prevent the Hibs goal machine from scoring, the Jambo's will have to contend themselves with a top-half finish this season and dreams of what might have been if they hadn't been so crap before the New Year.
St Mirren can still repeat last season's final 11th place if they lose at home to Aberdeen on Saturday and Kilmarnock beat Falkirk on the same day. Last night they served up some typical 'end of season fare', as the BBC put it, against an already safe Hamilton Accies. Between them, these two managed eleven shots on target, suggesting an attacking end-to-end game, but it wasn't. It was dull. It ended nil-nil. It mattered little.
One more weekend to go lads, and season 2009/10 is but a distant, and faintly unpleasant memory. What have been your highlights of the season? Anything that stick out, and anything that makes you clench your arse cheeks together?
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