Tactical mastermind: Brown admits he set out Motherwell's stall wrongly but still took a point from St Mirren. Pic: ©STV
Craig Brown apologised to his Motherwell players after their 0-0 draw at St Mirren on Tuesday night for his hasty decision to employ a 3-5-2 formation. Brown, who used the tactic to good effect with the Scotland national side that qualified for Euro 1996 and the 1998 World Cup, admitted that he had set his team up wrongly.
Despite their tactical problems, Brown guided his team to their 11th successive SPL match without defeat and to within three points of third spot in the table with the draw against Gus MacPherson’s side, who abandoned their normal style of playing the same formation Motherwell lined-up using.
After the match, Brown said that his players didn’t have enough time to prepare to play a system that earned Scotland famous wins over Germany and England during his tenure as national boss.
"I think least said, soonest mended,” said Brown. "I don't want to have too many thoughts about the game because I can't be too enthusiastic in the way we played.
"Sometimes when you get a point like that you are a bit embarrassed. When you see a first-half performance like that you say 'my God'
"But I take responsibility for that. I asked the players to play a shape with which they are not familiar and it wasn't to match up to St Mirren. I thought we had the players to play 3-5-2 which I played a lot with the Scottish team and which had been very successful.
"That shape won in Germany, it won at Wembley so it wasn't the shape. It was the lack of preparation to perfect it and I said that to them and apologised to them for it."
Motherwell struggled to get a shot away but held onto their record thanks to a combination of heroics from their goalkeeper John Ruddy, who has been linked with a move to Newcastle, and a shocking miss from Buddies’ midfielder Andy Dorman.
Dorman’s missed opportunity added to home manager Gus MacPherson’s frustration, saying that too many draws at St Mirren Park is hampering their efforts to pull clear of the drop zone.
"Andy was only on for seconds when the first chance came to him but the second one he snatched at it," MacPherson said. "He was just desperate to score.
"Last season he would have taken the ball around the keeper as if he wasn't there. On another night we would have scored a double.
"We have drawn eight games at home and I would have said that in four of them, we could have had maximum points."
