There was so much sand on the pitch that Nakamura could have used a rugby-style tee to deliver his free kicks but to their credit the manager and the players refused to blame the conditions for their failure to put the pressure back on the Huns.
Gordon Strachan was straight and to the point when asked by a reporter if the draw was a fair result. "Absolutely no danger," he said. "With all due respect, I don't know how anyone can say it was a fair result. It was nothing like a fair result. We created so many chances and played some good stuff on a pitch that is not conducive to rugby."
Following scoreless draws against Inverness and Rangers the Celtic boss had elected to change from his favoured 4-4-2 system in order to play his three main strikers together in a 4-3-3 formation. Scott McDonald, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras all spurned great opportunities to score and in truth Celtic should have finished the game as a contest by half-time just as they had done on their last visit to Fir Park. The fact that they didn't was down to the mis-firing front line "At the moment, we can't score goals, it is as simple as that," said Strachan. "The title will be decided by people who score more goals."
"Last year, we did that and won it." he continued. "At the moment, Rangers are scoring more goals and that's why they are top. That's the big difference between this year and last year. Until we get that right, it is going to be a struggle for us. It is a not a science, it is about players. All we can do is keep making chances and dominating games as we did today. We have come here in the past and won games by three or four goals, despite not creating as many chances as we did today."
"I didn't see Motherwell scoring at all, but then we gave away a free-kick and they did." added the Celtic gaffer. "Give Motherwell credit for sticking in there but there is a lot we should be pleased with. Not getting all three points is a huge disappointment, but to make that many chances is pleasing."
Gary Caldwell thinks that the fans are being short changed by teams having to play on sub-standard pitches like Motherwell's. "I don't imagine it was a great game to watch in terms of attractive football. It's shocking to think a game like that is live on TV. People aren't getting value for money. For the players it's very frustrating." he said.
Glenn Loovens accepted the blame for Motherwell's late equaliser but he also thought the game should have been over as a contest long before Paul Quinn cancelled out Scott McDonald's opener. "If you saw the game, we had plenty of chances to kill it off" he said. "And they had one shot at goal and it went in. I'm disappointed, the free-kick was a stupid one to give away. But I just had to deal with it. It was just a free-kick and we weren't quite organised because they took it quickly to the side. We weren't ready for it."
"That's a thing we can have a look at but, apart from that, we clearly dominated the game." continued the Dutch defender. "Of course we are concerned. We know we have dropped a lot of points but we are still well in the race for the title but we have to improve. We created many chances, so I am sure we will turn things around next time. But we have to make sure we go on a great run again and we have to start taking our chances."