Lennon Miller scored twice as Motherwell beat St MirrenSNS

Lennon Miller scored twice as Motherwell beat St Mirren

Adam Binnie
BBC Sport Scotland

Teenager Lennon Miller again inspired Motherwell to a gutsy victory after his double earned a come-from-behind Scottish Premiership win over St Mirren.

The 18-year-old backed up last week's League Cup quarter-final heroics and found the net twice inside the first half after Killian Phillips gave the visitors an early lead.

Both teams were reduced to 10 men after the interval as the game descended into controversy.

Just two minutes after the restart, Motherwell defender Dan Casey handled the ball on the goal-line to deny Phillips a certain second goal and was shown a straight red.

St Mirren captain Mark O'Hara stepped up to take the resulting penalty, but his spot-kick was tipped on to the post by Aston Oxborough to keep Motherwell in front.

The visitors' man advantage lasted just 14 minutes though as wing-back Scott Tanser was also dismissed for a second bookable offence.

Stephen Robinson's side dominated the remainder of the match but failed to create any clear chances as Motherwell held on for all three points.

Miller star of the show again

It was the Miller show once again, for the first half at least.

After last week's calm stoppage-time spot kick to put his side into the semi-finals of the League Cup, the teenager stepped up once more.

Not only did he score both Motherwell goals, but he also had more touches in the opposition box than any other player.

Miller is naturally a central midfielder, but has been deployed as a right inside forward as part of a narrow front three in Motherwell's last two matches.

That certainly doesn't look like its bothering him. He is flourishing in his new position and can add versality to his long list of desirable attributes.

St Mirren hard done by?

You've got to feel for St Mirren. On 48 minutes, they had a man advantage and reliable captain O'Hara was standing over a penalty kick.

He had only missed three of his previous 19 career spot kicks, but couldn't beat Aston Oxborough from 12 yards.

The miss was then compounded 14 minutes later when Tanser was controversially shown a second yellow card.

A second booking was an extremely harsh punishment for the full-back who made minimal contact with his opposite number in an unthreatening area of the pitch.

However, VAR could not intervene as it was not a straight red.

What they said

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell: "It was a rollercoaster. When you go a goal down, you start to see the reaction and the personality of the players.

"We relied on our goalkeeper [Oxborough] massively after the penalty. What a moment for him, it's almost like a goal for him.

"In the end, the players stood tall and I thought they managed the game really well.

"It's a massive victory for us and it keeps that feelgood factor going."

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "I thought we put in a really good performance and should've won the match.

"We created numerous chances and we dominated large parts of the game.

"I can only control what we are in control of. All we can control is taking our chances.

"I'm not going to not be standing on the touchline for next week by criticising officials."

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