LIVINGSTON 0-5 MOTHERWELL
Motherwell: Dorado (3 og), Foran (38, 60 pen), O’Donnell (57), Wright (90)
Referee: I Brines.
Attendance: 2,886
A Richie Foran double, singles from Kenneth Wright and Phil O’Donnell and an own goal from Emanuel Dorado, later red carded, sealed Motherwell’s place in February’s semi-finals. No one could deny Terry Butcher’s side the plaudits, but for holders Livingston it was a sorry end to a compelling fairytale.
Perhaps it was soul-searching in the wake of five defeats or the inspiring recollection of reaching the Scottish Cup semi-finals in 2003, but Motherwell opened like a side hell-bent on progressing. Their higher tempo rattled Livingston and rallied the Lanarkshire support in a poor 2,886 crowd.
The visitors were ahead in two minutes. David Clarkson, who recently signed a new deal, outpaced Oscar Rubio. Such was the pressure on the Livingston defence, when his cross fizzed across the goal, home defender Dorado was the last person to make contact as it hit the net.
Within 37 minutes, the hosts’ grip on the trophy was slipping when Jim Paterson’s pace took him away from Will Snowdon. Irishman Foran may have earned a rebuke from Butcher for playing Gaelic football on a recent trip home to the Emerald Isle, but his showing here certainly endeared him once again to his employers. When the ball came across, he wasted no time in dispatching it into the net.
Livingston’s cause could have been bettered just before half-time when Robert Snodgrass was adjudged offside as he looked to have prodded the ball over the line following a Jim Hamilton header which hit a post.
But things simply went from bad to worse for them after that and there will now be something inside the players that will find the CIS Cup a galling object to look at when they see it ‘on loan’ in their trophy cabinet for this campaign’s winners.
O’Donnell battered a volley off Rubio and into the net for a deflected third in 57 minutes, then two minutes later Dorado pulled back Foran in the box and was rightly ordered off. Foran added more gloss to a personally satisfying evening by slotting the penalty into the net before sub Wright chipped in the fifth in the 90th minute.
Livingston: McKenzie, McNamee, Easton, Rubio, Brittain, Dorado, Lovell (Lilley, 38), Snowdon, Hamilton (McGlaughlin, 79), O’Brien, Snodgrass (McMenamin, 74). Subs not used: Kernaghan, Meldrum.
Motherwell: Marshall, Corrigan, Hammell, Partridge, Craigan, Fitzpatrick, Clarkson, Paterson, Foran (Fagen 64), O’Donnell (Wright, 77), Quinn. Subs not used: Burns, Kinniburgh, B John-Corr.
Motherwell: Dorado (3 og), Foran (38, 60 pen), O’Donnell (57), Wright (90)
Referee: I Brines.
Attendance: 2,886
A Richie Foran double, singles from Kenneth Wright and Phil O’Donnell and an own goal from Emanuel Dorado, later red carded, sealed Motherwell’s place in February’s semi-finals. No one could deny Terry Butcher’s side the plaudits, but for holders Livingston it was a sorry end to a compelling fairytale.
Perhaps it was soul-searching in the wake of five defeats or the inspiring recollection of reaching the Scottish Cup semi-finals in 2003, but Motherwell opened like a side hell-bent on progressing. Their higher tempo rattled Livingston and rallied the Lanarkshire support in a poor 2,886 crowd.
The visitors were ahead in two minutes. David Clarkson, who recently signed a new deal, outpaced Oscar Rubio. Such was the pressure on the Livingston defence, when his cross fizzed across the goal, home defender Dorado was the last person to make contact as it hit the net.
Within 37 minutes, the hosts’ grip on the trophy was slipping when Jim Paterson’s pace took him away from Will Snowdon. Irishman Foran may have earned a rebuke from Butcher for playing Gaelic football on a recent trip home to the Emerald Isle, but his showing here certainly endeared him once again to his employers. When the ball came across, he wasted no time in dispatching it into the net.
Livingston’s cause could have been bettered just before half-time when Robert Snodgrass was adjudged offside as he looked to have prodded the ball over the line following a Jim Hamilton header which hit a post.
But things simply went from bad to worse for them after that and there will now be something inside the players that will find the CIS Cup a galling object to look at when they see it ‘on loan’ in their trophy cabinet for this campaign’s winners.
O’Donnell battered a volley off Rubio and into the net for a deflected third in 57 minutes, then two minutes later Dorado pulled back Foran in the box and was rightly ordered off. Foran added more gloss to a personally satisfying evening by slotting the penalty into the net before sub Wright chipped in the fifth in the 90th minute.
Livingston: McKenzie, McNamee, Easton, Rubio, Brittain, Dorado, Lovell (Lilley, 38), Snowdon, Hamilton (McGlaughlin, 79), O’Brien, Snodgrass (McMenamin, 74). Subs not used: Kernaghan, Meldrum.
Motherwell: Marshall, Corrigan, Hammell, Partridge, Craigan, Fitzpatrick, Clarkson, Paterson, Foran (Fagen 64), O’Donnell (Wright, 77), Quinn. Subs not used: Burns, Kinniburgh, B John-Corr.