Liam Donnelly’s last-gasp winner for Motherwell in their Scottish Cup fourth round clash against Morton was the reward after a nightmare year out through injury, and he says there’s no better feeling.
It was also his first strike of the season.
Kevin Van Veen had levelled from the spot early in the second period of extra time, after Robbie Muirhead had given Morton the lead, cutting in from the right and drilling a low shot into the bottom left corner.
Prior to that there hadn’t been too much to write home about, and the sides were locked at 0-0 after 90 minutes in the fourth round of the competition at the same venue for the second consecutive season.
On that occasion, Motherwell needed penalties to go through to the fifth round, and Donnelly was relieved to have avoided that with such a crucial strike.
He said: “I’m delighted to get the winner and get through to the next round after Morton gave us a difficult game.
“When you saw the ball get cleared off the line like that, you think maybe the ball isn’t going to go in for you.
“But we kept the pressure on, which is what we try and do with teams, by keeping them penned in.
“We kept momentum going and the ball eventually found its way in.
“There’s not much of a better feeling, scoring a goal in the last minute of extra-time, to score the winning goal.
“I’ve certainly missed it.”
A knee injury ruled Donnelly out for most of last season, having suffered the injury in a 1-0 opening day defeat against Ross County, and there were a few set-backs, which saw him only recently reintroduced to Graham Alexander’s squad.
“It’s a great feeling for me personally to get back on the scoresheet,” said the 25-year-old.
“Even the timing of it, I don’t think it could get much better.
“I’ve been out for a while, and I’ve missed that feeling of when the ball hits the back of the net, so I am delighted.
“Hopefully there are a few more goals to come, too.”
Former Hartlepool star Donnelly says boss Graham Alexander was calm during the extra-time interval, even at 1-0 down, and told them to keep plugging away.
He said: “There was obviously frustration, because of the goal we conceded, but the manager said to us that we have got time to get it right.
“He said we had time to go and get at least one goal, if not two, and that’s exactly what we did, thankfully.
“He told us to keep our heads, not to panic, because we would get chances.
“We did that, and we got through.”
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