Motherwell’s reserve team racked up the goals early against St Johnstone, scoring all six in the first half in a 6-1 win in the SPFL Reserve League.
James Scott netted a hat-trick for Stephen Craigan’s side, with further goals coming from George Newell, Akeel Rehman and Broque Watson.
However, a blistering first 45 was followed up by a disappointing second, as the hosts pulled one back and the young Steelmen failed to add to their first half tally.
There were important minutes for first team players Charles Dunne, Liam Donnelly and Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, and impressive performances from a number of Stephen Craigan’s youngsters in front of the onlooking Stephen Robinson.
Liam Brown was instrumental in carving out the opener for Scott to slide past the Saints stopper after 12 minutes, and lifted a neat ball over the top for Newell to race on to and finish confidently in to the bottom corner five minutes later.
It took four more minutes for the third to arrive. Taylor-Sinclair’s throw was flicked on by Scott, with Akeal Rehman getting in on the act by side-footing in to the top corner.
Adam Livingstone created a couple of goals to cap an impressive 45 minutes for the youngster.
The first saw him slide a delightful ball across goal for a Watson tap-in, and then he cut back cleverly for Scott to slam a thunderous effort off the underside of the crossbar.
Scott rounded off his hat trick with a powerful header from a Liam Donnelly cross, but a poor second half was rounded off when the hosts made it 6-1 despite barely laying a glove in the opening half.
