Jim Leishman Post Motherwell

Losing the second goal made it difficult to come back from that today. It wasn't about tactics, it was just that

After the 2-1 defeat at Motherwell, Jim Leishman did not emerge to give the media his post match comments for some considerable time. He explained:-

"We were just having a discussion in the dressing room talking about the first half when Motherwell got so much possession that they were dictating the play. For 90% of the first half we were on the back foot but we didn't come here to do that. We set out a 4-4-2 trying to get crosses in and trying to get the ball out wide to the two wing backs. It didn't happen and all credit to Motherwell.

"When we got the goal we started to put Motherwell under pressure but not for a long enough time. Jim Hamilton had a wee chance to put us in front at that time. I was thinking about putting Mark Burchill on to try and go and win the game but we looked comfortable enough after we equalised.

"Losing the second goal made it difficult to come back from that today.

"It wasn't about tactics it was just that we didn't perform. Against St Mirren and against Kilmarnock in the second half we played some good football and scored five goals in those two periods. That is what we set our stall out to try and do.

"Roddy McKenzie made just one mistake today at a cross ball but apart from that he played really well. Dorus de Vries had a muscle spasm in his back. He went away on Friday and he is still in a lot of agony even today. These are the kind of things we have had to handle but it is not why we lost the game; I think Motherwell played better than us on the day to be fair.

"I was waiting on the referee to point to the side, everybody seemed to stop Reynolds kept it in play because the whistle hadn't been blown. I don't think the ball was out, nobody has come and said 'look the ball was out'. Somebody would comment. The Referee was in a good enough position to see, so there was no excuse we just stopped. We should have kept playing to the whistle."

Leishman's troops broke their duck with Stevie Crawford scoring the first away goal of this SPL season but they have yet to win a match on the road and there are suggestions that a certain 'fear factor' travels with the team bus:-

"These are things we spoke about, how we can be so aggressive in attacking play in spells at home and show a bit of confidence. Whether it is a confidence or fear thing I don't know but it is up to me to get the answers. It is easy saying that but everyone has to work for each other. We have to catch St Mirren, Motherwell, Inverness and all the others.

"They are all catchable and remember in December last year we were 13 points behind Falkirk at one stage but it went to the last day so we will give these boys a kick up the backside and move them forward.

"I have not had a report on Scott Wilson yet but he could not go at full pace. It's his hamstring."