Motherwell's brilliant display against Aberdeen saw them fight like lions and ruthlessly take their scoring chances

It's incredible the difference 13 days can make in football: this rampant destruction of Scotland's runners-up for the previous four seasons came less than a fortnight after 'Well's embarrassing 7-1 pasting against Rangers.
Gael Bigirimana quite literally gave a superhero performance in midfield!Gael Bigirimana quite literally gave a superhero performance in midfield!
Gael Bigirimana quite literally gave a superhero performance in midfield!

Where the Steelmen were paassive, outrun and outfought for the last hour at Ibrox, against Aberdeen they never stopped running, fought like lions and produced finishing of ruthless efficiency.

Two-goal hero Danny Johnson’s man of the match display will deservedly get most of the headlines and rightly so.

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His lung bursting run from inside his own half before shooting Motherwell ahead after 24 minutes was exceptional, as was the frontman’s razor sharp header from a Gael Bigirimana corner to double the lead before half-time.

But, in truth, this was one of those rare days when literally everyone in claret and amber was well on song and vastly superior to their beleaguered opponents from the Granite City.

Goalkeeper Mark Gillespie – making his first start of the season as Trevor Carson’s replacement after Trev’s shocking deep vein thrombosis diagnosis – was as solid as a rock.

Christian Mbulu – playing his first full 90 minutes for the first team – strolled through the game at centre back and looks a real find.

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In midfield, the indefatigable Liam Grimshaw’s energy was incredible and he made the Energiser Bunny look like Old Father Time.

David Turnbull scored the third as part of yet another impressive display beside Grimmy, with Bigirimana, Richard Tait and Curtis Main among the other standouts.

Incredibly, this match represented the third time in 14 months that Motherwell had thumped the Dons 3-0 in a match under the leadership of gaffer Stephen Robinson, who sounded understandably chuffed afterwards.

Robinson said: “It was a good performance, a good reaction to what happened a couple of weeks ago at Ibrox. It takes strong characters to do that and I was very impressed with them today.

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“They set about their task, I thought they were really well organised.

“We were physical when we had to be physical and I thought we showed a heck of a lot of quality.

“There were some super, super performances from some of the younger players and the older experienced ones as well.

“Danny Johnson is a goalscorer at lower levels, could we improve his overall game?

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“And I think you can see that already, he’s starting to improve.

“That’s what we do at this football club. We don’t have the luxury of spending £9 million on players and £2 million on full backs.

“We get kids from non league, we get players who aren’t playing in League Two and we develop our own young boys, that’s our strategy.

“So you need good coaching, but you also need players that buy into that, want to learn and Danny’s one of those.

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“And I have to give him credit. I believe he can get better. His general overall play has really improved and I thought that was his best performance so far.”

On Turnbull – who has now scored three goals in four games – Robbo added: “You won’t fluster David. I’m not sure an earthquake would fluster David.

“He’s the most calm and relaxed boy about.

“We’re trying to get him to get 90 minutes at that intensity.”