Aberdeen 0-2 Motherwell

Louis Moult scored a double as Motherwell warmed up for the League Cup final with an impressive win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

Moult headed Motherwell into the lead just before half-time when he got on to the end of Richard Tait's free-kick.

And he doubled the visitors' advantage when he slammed home Chris Cadden's cross at the near post.

Aberdeen struggled to create anything in the final third as Motherwell strolled to the three points.

With Graeme Shinnie suspended, Andrew Considine captained Aberdeen to mark his 408th appearance for the club, but it was a torrid start for him and the rest of the Dons defence as Motherwell were determined to continue the improvement they have shown since a 7-2 hammering at Pittodrie last February.

They also wanted to prove they weren't going to be distracted by next weekend's League Cup Final against Celtic and it took three good saves by Joe Lewis to deny them a goal in the opening 10 minutes.

The big goalkeeper was at his best to deny Liam Grimshaw and Andy Rose twice.

Not that the home side were shy about getting forward themselves with Adam Rooney flicking a shot narrowly wide while Ryan Christie brought out the best in the visiting goalkeeper Trevor Carson.

That certainly made it an exciting start, but too exciting as far as Derek McInnes was concerned as the Aberdeen manager switched to a back three to blunt Motherwell's threat.

Louis Moult (third left) heads Motherwell into the lead

It seemed to be working too until Moult made it 13 goals for the season, and the manner it arose was really frustrating for McInnes.

Considine gave away a free-kick just inside his own half and for some reason the Dons defence failed to mark Moult when Tait sent the ball into the box and the resulting header produced the inevitable result.

McInnes' response was to replace Greg Tansey with Stevie May to try and get things going in an attacking sense, but that man Moult continued to torment Aberdeen with a terrific second goal.

Cadden outpaced Scott McKenna down the right and his near post cross was met by Moult's stunning half-volley to claim his 50th goal for the club.

From then on Aberdeen gave little indication that they could salvage anything from the game as the visitors showed real tenacity at the back to restrict their goalscoring chances.

Carson did make one crucial block from substitute May, but that apart the Motherwell goalkeeper wasn't really troubled as they saw out a first win at Pittodrie since May 2014.

It was the perfect way to prepare for next week's cup final which is the first of a triple header against Celtic as they face Brendan Rodgers' side home and away in the league after that.

Louis Moult (right) beats Aberdeen defender Kari Arnason to the ball to score Motherwell's second

Post-match reaction

Aberdeen assistant manager Tony Docherty: "It was very uncharacteristic from us. Sometimes you have a bad day, that was a bad day from us.

"They (Motherwell) played a system that we didn't expect them to play, that threw us a little bit at the start of the game. We adapted but we never seemed to get into a rhythm.

"They're a good group of boys, they give us more good than bad, but we need to analyse that and make sure we don't have too many of them performances again."

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson: "We've got a good squad and players are fighting to keep hold of their places.

"Louis (Moult) has a habit of being in the right place at the right time but, to a man, I thought we were great today. We played a different system today and they really bought into it.

"We deserve a crack at Celtic and we will not be lying down. Somebody's got to do it (beat Celtic) and we've got a great opportunity with three games in a week. We know how good Celtic are but we have good organisation and real desire."