By grabar
May 23 2009

Motherwell lost 2-1 to Kilmarnock in a true end of season affair whcih provided little excitment of note.

Mark McGhee handed a debut to keeper Artur Krysiak, and he also brought back Steven Hammell and John Sutton after last week's win over Hamilton. On the other side Killie made seven changes as they looked to avoid injury and suspension.

The only real incident of note in the opening stages was the clash of heads between Murray and Pascali that saw Killie make two more changes in the opening twenty minutes.

This was followed by the sight of police and stewards trying to remove an inflatable alligator from the Killie fans, who heaven forbid were trying to enjoy themselves and bring some colour to anotherwise drab occassion.

The opening goal came in 27 minutes, and the Well defence was posted missing, allowing Taouil to pick out Invincible in acres of space and the Australian smashed the ball past Krysiak.

We should've been level on a number of occassions early in the second half with Brian McLean coming closest with a head off the bar. although Sheridan's effort from 6 yards out was pathetic.

We did force an equaliser in 80 minutes when Clarkson robbed Clancy before setting up McLean to side foot home from 8 yards out. This put the seal on a good couple of days for McLean who was offered a new contract yesterday.

Sadly there was to be no positive end to the season as Killie scored a winner as the game moved into stoppage time. Fernandez's back heel set up Taouil who smashed a close range effort past Krysiak.

It did seem a bizarre decision to play the keeper who was never given the chance to impress given the low key nature of the game. This wasn't as bad as the decision to bring on Bob Malcolm, who looked neither fit or interested and limped off before the end.

As the players took a lap of "honour" it will be interesting to see how many of them are back at Fir Park at the start of next season.