At the second time of asking, Motherwell faced Aberdeen in Round Five of the Scottish Cup, looking to progress to the quarter-final. Having got the better of their opponents just three days ago, the Steelmen arrived at Pittodrie on a cold and windy Wednesday night with confidence that they could get the job done again. Six changes were made to the side that defeated Aberdeen, but sadly, there wasn't a great opportunity to see how those changes would take effect. After just two minutes, Oscar Priestman was ordered off for an untimely and purely accidental slip that caused Lyall Cameron to crash to the deck just outside the box. Kevin Nisbet scored from the resulting free kick, and with just four minutes on the clock, the Steelmen would be a man and a goal down. The numbers would be levelled out midway through the first half, however, when Dennis Geiger was also shown a red card for a high tackle on Lukas Fadinger. The Steelmen stuck in there and started the second-half well in the match. But the game would take another twist in controversial fashion. Liam Gordon fouled Toyosi Olusanya 50 yards from goal, but VAR decided to intervene, and John Beaton showed his third red card of the evening to the Motherwell defender after watching the footage back from an angle in the North Sea. Graeme Shinnie slotted a second as the nine men of Motherwell tried to remain in the tie. With nine players and the game nearing its conclusion, Motherwell continued to battle, with Longelo, Nicholson, Maswanhise and Slattery all having chances. Just their fifth defeat of the season in all competitions, Motherwell have 12 matches left in their league campaign remaining as they look to finish what they started in the Premiership.
Kick off Saturday 21st February 19:30
Starts Saturday 21st February 19:00
