St Johnstone are through to the Betfred Cup quarter-finals thanks to a fantastic comeback victory at Fir Park.
Callum Davidson’s men fell behind to a Tony Watt strike just after the hour mark but Callum Hendry and then David Wotherspoon scored in the space of eight minutes to secure the place in Sunday’s draw.
Not only does this win keep Saints in the cup it also extends their unbeaten run to 10 games, with the season really starting to gain momentum now.
Anybody who watched the two league matches between these sides wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised we got another tight encounter.
Both teams had one glorious chance in the first half.
For Motherwell it was a Watt shot after a huge space opened up for him at the right of the Saints’ defence. Thankfully for his old club the low side-foot finish was no better than a pass-back.
For the visitors it was an Ali McCann shot from just inside the box that was presented to him by a delightful Stevie May lay-off. Aaron Chapman did well to block with his feet.
Watt was at his lethal best to put Motherwell in front on 61 minutes – cashing in on a Ricki Lamie header from a set-piece to give Zander Clark no chance.
Saints were only behind for seven minutes, though.
Hendry was in the right position to take full advantage of Michael O’Halloran’s hard work in preventing the ball from running out and setting him up with a neat cut-back to the front post.
It was O’Halloran who again did the hard work for the goal that put Saints 2-1 up.
Right wing-back in place of Danny McNamara, he left Lamie trailing as he powered past the Motherwell defender before sending over a cross that Wotherspoon got a slight touch on to find the far corner of the net.
Saints never looked in any danger of conceding and they saw the game out comfortably.