Motherwell v AberdeenImage source, SNS

At a glance

  • Unbeaten Motherwell score twice in injury-time to secure first win

  • Aberdeen bottom and still search for first league goal after six games

  • Fans jeer manager Thelin at end for second game in row

Motherwell v Aberdeen highlights

27/09/25

Aberdeen endured another miserable day in their wretched season when Motherwell scored twice in stoppage-time to record their first Scottish Premiership win of the campaign.

Jimmy Thelin's side, without a goal, far less a win in their opening five league games, looked like they were going to eke out a morale-boosting goalless draw in the Fir Park rain.

But, moments after Marko Lazetic spurned a sight of a late winner, goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov allowed a tame Johnny Koutroumbis' shot to squirm inexplicably away from him.

It swiftly went from bad to worse for the league's bottom side, who then conceded a penalty after referee Ryan Lee was called to the monitor by VAR after Esapa Osong was felled by Alfie Dorrington.

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, who had missed two glorious chances in the second half, slammed the spot-kick straight down the middle.

That sent the Motherwell fans into a frenzy but, for the second game running, it left Aberdeen manager Thelin heading down the tunnel to the tune of "you're getting sacked in the morning".

Analysis: Positives for Motherwell & Aberdeen?

This was the sixth game in this league season that hasn't yielded a win, but it might to be the sorest for Aberdeen.

Up until this, Thelin has been stubborn - much to the frustration of fans - and stuck with his 4-2-3-1 system. At last, he changed his approach and to some avail.

Even after a gut-wrenching finale, supporters will see this as a much-improved performance.

A speedy start, during which saw Kevin Nisbet forced Calum Ward into a save inside 40 seconds, suggested this might just be the game their fortunes flipped.

The issue is, they still take fright at the sight of goal. The positive is, at least they had a sight of the net. In the first-half, at least.

It took time for Jens Berthel Askou's side to kick into their free-flowing play - which should have earned them a league win before now - but their patience paid off.

Around Stamatelopoulos' gilt-edged chances, Tawanda Maswanhise and Ibrahim Said terrorised the visiting defence, while Elliot Watt pulled all the strings.

Deserved back-to-back wins can do wonders for this Motherwell side, who continue to impress in invention and determination.

Graphic

What they said

Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou: "I think everyone is enjoying the moment right now. We're happy. We enjoyed the performance from the sidelines, the fans were excellent and it seemed like they enjoyed the performance too.

"'When the first went in I felt the thrill that goes through your body when you score and you know it could be decisive. I was even more happy with the second because it put a big fat line under how much we invested in winning the game.

"Now we are winning games and it's about continuing to raise the level because I think we can still be a little bit sharper."

Media caption,

'We have to believe' - Thelin on Aberdeen struggles

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin: "Before Tuesday, I don't think we performed well enough to deserve results, but today the performance was much better.

"The energy was there, the players were fighting in duels. I hope the fans feel the connection with the team again. We tried, we had some good chances at the beginning and end of the game but we need to find the last pass to find that goal.

"The chances we've had this season, to have not scored a goal is quite incredible. Sometimes you need luck to get out of this, today we didn't have any luck.

"It's a difficult game to lose. Sometimes it's not easy to be positive when you're on this run but you have to believe and we have to build on this performance now."

What's next for these teams?

Motherwell, still unbeaten, make the trip to Celtic next Sunday (15:00 BST).

Aberdeen welcome Dundee to Pittodrie at the same time. First, though, they have their Conference League opener at home to Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday (20:00).

Where next?

Player of the match

Number: 20 E. Watt
Average rating 6.41
Number: 20 E. Watt
Average Rating: 6.41
Number: 22 J. Koutroumbis
Average Rating: 6.17
Number: 45 E. Longelo
Average Rating: 5.82
Number: 4 L. Gordon
Average Rating: 5.75
Number: 2 S. O'Donnell
Average Rating: 5.69
Number: 13 C. Ward
Average Rating: 5.69
Number: 18 T. Maswanhise
Average Rating: 5.68
Number: 12 L. Fadinger
Average Rating: 5.67
Number: 24 E. Osong
Average Rating: 5.65
Number: 57 S. Welsh
Average Rating: 5.57
Number: 77 Regan Charles-Cook
Average Rating: 5.56
Number: 5 K. Balmer
Average Rating: 5.53
Number: 11 A. Halliday
Average Rating: 5.50
Number: 90 I. Said
Average Rating: 5.11
Number: 9 A. Stamatelopoulos
Average Rating: 5.00

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.