Peter Hartley: Motherwell were beaten up all over the pitch at Livingston

Motherwell skipper Peter Hartley reckons his side were “beaten up all over the pitch” in Saturday’s disappointing 1-0 loss at Livingston.
Peter Hartley looks on as his last gasp shot at Livingston is on its way towards hitting the post (Pic by Ian McFadyen)Peter Hartley looks on as his last gasp shot at Livingston is on its way towards hitting the post (Pic by Ian McFadyen)
Peter Hartley looks on as his last gasp shot at Livingston is on its way towards hitting the post (Pic by Ian McFadyen)

In an unusually poor performance, Hartley was the only Motherwell player who came close to scoring with an injury time shot which cracked off the post as home keeper Robby McCrorie dived full length to try and save.

“It was right that it hit the inside of the post and didn’t go in to be honest,” Hartley told the Times and Speaker.

“I’m not sure if the keeper got a touch on it.

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“I was too busy trying to see where it was going to land if it hit the post.

“I went one way and it (the ball) obviously went the opposite way.

“We didn’t deserve anything, we were miles off it.

“Sometimes you get what you deserve. We could have maybe taken a point if that had gone in the back of the net.

“But we wouldn’t have deserved a point. We just weren’t at the races.

“I don’t know what was up with us.

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“I thought we started OK but I thought we got caught in two stools.

“We got beaten up all over the pitch.

Livingston picked every second ball up and deserved to win the game.

“We just need to make sure we react in the right way which this season we have generally well, all the time to be honest.

“We’ve always bounced back from a disappointing game with a win or a good performance.

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“And we’ve got to put that in against Celtic (Motherwell’s next league game at Fir Park tomorrow night (Wednesday).”

One major plus to come out of a poor day for the Steelmen in West Lothian was the display of goalkeeper Mark Gillespie who made several fine stops to keep the score down.

“Mark was on a different level,” Hartley said.

“He made the game look tight. In the newspaper you see 1-0 to Livingston – that’s because of Mark Gillespie because it could have been four or five.”

Having lost to Livi, Motherwell face a daunting task against the league leaders Celtic.

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