Jardell Kanga's late goal rescued a point for Motherwell at St MirrenSNS

Jardell Kanga's late goal rescued a point for Motherwell at St Mirren

At a glance

  • Maswanhise scores early Motherwell opener then misses penalty before Charles-Cook doubles lead

  • St Mirren hit back to score three in 10 remarkable minutes to lead at half-time

  • Debutant Kanga come off bench to score incredible last-minute goal to snatch draw

Kheredine Idessane
BBC Sport Scotland at Marbill Coaches Stadium

Debutant Jardell Kanga's incredible last-minute goal rescued a Scottish Premiership point for Motherwell in a six-goal thriller against St Mirren.

Five goals came in a frantic first half the visitors dominated until shortly before the break when St Mirren turned the game on its head with three strikes in 10 minutes.

Motherwell's Tawanda Maswanhise could have had a hat-trick in the first 20 minutes. He had his side ahead early after calmly rounding goalkeeper Jacob Chapman from Alex Lowry's fine defence-splitting pass.

The Zimbabwe international then had a penalty - awarded for an Alex Gogic handball - well saved by Chapman, the Australian goalkeeper making his second stop from a spot-kick this season.

Maswanhise shot wide when clean through before Regan Charles-Cook doubled Motherwell's lead with an excellent shot into the top corner from the edge of the area.

But midfielder Paul Nsio, on loan from Rangers, curled in a fine effort to begin a sensational St Mirren comeback.

The home fans were soon celebrating an equaliser, slammed powerfully beyond Alex Paulsen by left-back Declan John after an impressive move.

With the momentum in St Mirren's favour, Spanish midfielder Samuel Ramos then found the top corner after the visiting defence failed to clear a free-kick to send the home side in ahead at the break.

It is perhaps no great surprise the second period couldn't live up to the first. But newly-signed 20-year-old forward Kanga, who came on in the second half for his Motherwell debut, salvaged a point with a wonderful strike from the edge of the box right at the death.

St Mirren analysis: Buddies show best & worst in thriller

With a quarter of this match played, you would never have been predicting a St Mirren win. Yet they were seconds away from doing just that.

For the first 25 minutes or so, they were all over the place, completely outplayed by a Motherwell side who could afford to miss a penalty and still be two goals to the good.

That means you have to credit the backbone and resilience of Craig McLeish's new-look side to get back into this, even after conceding a last-gasp equaliser.

A dozen new signings have come in and they have seven points from a possible nine at the start of the season.

There is plenty for the home faithful to be encouraged about, having narrowly avoided relegation last season via the play-offs.

St Mirren 'not here to survive or make up numbers'

Motherwell analysis: Two points dropped despite late leveller

Motherwell will be asking themselves a simple question: how did it come to this?

The answer came in 10 crazy minutes before half-time when they contrived to throw away all their good work in the opening period.

The way they started the match was an absolute joy to behold. Great goals and fabulous football, reminiscent of many a display from last term under Jens Berthel Askou.

The way they conceded three goals in 10 minutes before half-time, however, will no doubt be put under the microscope by manager Alfred Johansson.

The Swede's side have played a lot of football already this season following their attempt to qualify for the Conference League, but the nature of the first-half collapse will be a concern.

His players stuck at it, though, and always gave themselves a chance of salvaging a draw from a remarkable contest, with new signing Kanga blasting in a late stunner.

What they said

St Mirren manager Craig McLeish: "It's a sore one because Motherwell scored so late, but I think it shows how far we've come as a group that we're disappointed with that in the end, and the way Motherwell celebrated a draw here shows how far we've come and how good we've been.

"We didn't help ourselves early on when we were two goals down. We got punished with top quality finishes, but I thought throughout the game we did some really good stuff.

"We're creating chances and we're playing with bravery and aggression. The players are running themselves into the ground, leaving everything out there."

Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson: "The start to the game was brilliant for us, I thought we looked really fast and complex.

"We played really well and created chances in different ways. Then we conceded three goals in 10 minutes and go into half-time thinking about what the plan is for the second half.

"I want to praise the team for how we dug really deep. Strength in mentality and spirit once again, but I'm not satisfied with how we ended the first half."

Player of the match

J. Kanga
7.68
10 Samuel Ramos
6.50
8 R. Carr
5.94
3 D. John
5.61
53 H. Fieldson
5.53
1 J. Chapman
5.50
47 C. Ramsay
5.47
48 P. Nsio
5.37
25 N. Agrafiotis
5.31
16 L. Thomas
5.13
19 I. Kabia
5.12
20 J. Young
5.00
2 J. Richardson
4.88
9 E. Sule
4.80
23 C. Mochrie
4.75
30 F. Taylor
4.67
13 A. Gogić
4.06
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