Sondre Solholm says conceding a a late goal hurt more than getting stitches in his head after Motherwell’s 1-0 defeat against Hibs at Easter Road.
And he believes the Lanarkshire side put themselves in “stupid” situations, both for Connor Shields’ red card and Ryan Porteous’s winner 11 minutes later.
Shields was shown a straight red card for hauling down the Hibs defender in 56 minutes, just when Motherwell looked to be grabbing the game.
But that dismissal, and a catalogue or errors and deflections took Martin Boyle’s cross into the path of Porteous, who buried a powerful header past Liam Kelly before colliding with Solholm.
Norwegian defender Solholm, 27, said: “It was a tough game. I hadn’t played here before but everybody says it’s a tough place to come, and it was.
“It felt like the first half was just messy. We lost the ball in stupid situations, we looked a little bit off.
“In the first half we lost a couple of stupid balls and that just changed the momentum a little bit, and to their advantage.
“In the second half we controlled the ball a little bit more, but then we got that red card which, didn’t ruin the game for us, but made it more difficult.
“Then I lost first contact, so we conceded a goal.
“To sum it up, it was a difficult game.”
Solholm reckons Motherwell shouldn’t have allowed the situation to escalate to the point where Shields pulled Porteous’ jersey, and said: “It was messy.
“We should have just nipped it in the bud, should have taken it way earlier, and he should never have got that far in the first place.
“If it’s a red card or not I didn’t see, but we should have taken it way before it actually happens, so it doesn’t really concern me if it’s a clear foul of not.
“It’s stupid that it gets that far, and it’s way messier than it needed to be.
“That’s what’s frustrating, it’s what’s frustrating Connor as well, and the gaffer and all the boys in the dressing room are aware that a red card changes games.”
The big defender received stitches in his head from a head wound sustained during battle, and when asked what was more painful, that or conceding the goal, he said: “.Always conceding goals is the most painful thing as a defender, especially if it’s my fault.
“It got a little bit easy down the side from a set piece because there was a deflection, so I had to change my step a little bit, but he should have never got there first on that ball.
“That’s the most painful bit.”
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