Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Poor final preparation as Dons just give it away at Fir Park

Aberdeen's Lewis Ferguson (left) shows his frustration.
Aberdeen's Lewis Ferguson (left) shows his frustration.

As cup final preparations go, this was as miserable as it gets for Aberdeen as they succumbed to Motherwell with alarming ease at Fir Park.

Saturday was a day to forget for the Dons as they gift-wrapped the points for the Steelmen. To be blunt, the Dons simply didn’t turn up. They cannot afford a repeat when they take on Celtic in the Betfred League Cup final at Hampden on Sunday.

It had all started so promisingly for Derek McInnes’s side. But from the moment Aberdeen gave Motherwell the lead the outcome of this one was never in doubt.

The frustrating part is that the hosts did not even have to work hard for their win. Aberdeen were simply dreadful.

Mark Gillespie featured in goal for Well after regular goalkeeper Trevor Carson’s health scare when he was hit by deep-vein thrombosis. Gillespie was called into action in the fourth minute to keep out a powerful Stevie May drive.

It was a subdued opening at Fir Park but all the chances came for the visitors and Dons captain Graeme Shinnie should have put his side in front in the 21st minute when Max Lowe picked him out brilliantly with a cutback but the midfielder screwed his shot wide with a poor right-footed effort from 14 yards.

The Dons were in complete control but they were masters of their own misery as, from their first corner of the game, they contrived to gift the home side the opening goal.

Gary Mackay-Steven took a short corner to Niall McGinn who backtracked 25 yards from the Well goal before passing the ball straight to Danny Johnson on the halfway line. The Well man could not believe his luck as he found himself one-on-one with Shay Logan and he strode forward before cutting inside to curl the ball low past Joe Lewis from 16 yards.

The perplexed look on the faces of the Aberdeen players was matched by the anguish on that of McGinn.

Aberdeen were stunned and it went from bad to worse as Well doubled their lead on the half-hour mark when Johnson headed a Curtis Main flick past Lewis from close range to make it 2-0.

The Dons took 10 minutes to recover their composure.

But they regained a foothold in the game when the impressive Lowe forced Gillespie into a save.

But any hopes of a comeback were extinguished 10 minutes into the second half.

The Dons defence got themselves in a real mess and Lewis Ferguson’s attempted clearance ricocheted off Main into the path of David Turnbull, who slotted the ball past Lewis from 10 yards. The only positive was that it did not get any worse and McInnes can only hope his players give him a reaction when it really matters against Celtic at the national stadium on Sunday.

It they don’t, it will be a very long day indeed in Glasgow this weekend.

l Aberdeen will have the chance to gain revenge on Stenhousemuir after the sides were drawn together in the draw for the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.

Stenny defeated a Dons side including Theo Snelders, Eoin Jess and Duncan Shearer 2-0 at the same stage of the competition in 1995.

The match is scheduled for January 19-20.