M'well 0 Aberdeen 1

Scorer: ABERDEEN: Mulgrew

JIMMY CALDERWOOD denied he was doing an Arsene Wenger after claiming he totally missed new-signing Tommy Wright's attempted head-butt on Stephen Craigan.

But the Aberdeen boss says he will watch the flashpoint again and, if the evidence damns his new signing from Darlington, he'll hit him in the pocket.

After a deadly dull afternoon, this game only really kicked off after 86 minutes when Charlie Mulgrew swept a 25-yard free-kick round Motherwell's wall to earn the Dons three rare away points.

Then it all kicked off as fired-up Dons sub Tommy Wright went head to head with Well skipper Craigan.

The Reds striker had already earned a booking for a late lunge on Stevie Hammell in injury time.

After he was struck by a flailing arm from Craigan, he squared up to his marker and attempted to head-butt him.

Fortunately for Wright, Craigan managed to see it coming and avoided contact, as well as the temptation to make a meal of the incident.

The incident did little for Wright's reputation as a wild child. The former England Under-19 star is still only 23 but has already clocked up a crime sheet of 31 bookings and four red cards in his career including a booking for a similar lunge against Inverness reserves on Tuesday.

Caldo says he intends to educate him about Scottish refs if he discovers his striker sinned in the dying seconds.

The Aberdeen boss said: "I'm not doing an Arsene here, I honestly didn't see the incident. I thought it was just a kind of a falling out.

"I don't know if there was any contact at all because I certainly never saw that. I'll need to have a look at it again later. Honest to God, I did not see it.

"I thought it was silly tackle on Steven Hammell and he'll need to lose that.

"You can't go about like that in Scottish football but it's his enthusiasm. He got booked and rightly so.

"We'll have a wee whisper in his ear. Whether he changes or not, that's up to him. It depends how big his bank balance is I suppose!"

This game appeared perfectly balanced for 86 minutes because neither side looked remotely capable of breaking the deadlock.

All that changed thanks to one flash of inspiration from the best player on the park by a mile, Scotland Under-21 left-back Mulgrew.

The youngster had already wasted one free-kick when he hoofed it hopelessly into the waiting arms of Graeme Smith before the break.

It looked as if he had to persuade a few of his team-mates to let him have another crack, when Hammell fouled Gary McDonald.

But the former Celtic, Dundee United and Wolves defender strode forward and expertly bent his shot from 25 yards around the wall.

Smith scrambled across his line frantically, but was hopelessly beaten as the ball kicked off the surface and found the corner of his net.

It was tough luck on a Motherwell side who didn't deserve to lose but didn't do nearly enough to win.

Manager Mark McGhee admitted: "To win we had to score and we didn't. We had more of the game in terms of possession and territory so it's disappointing, but these things happen.

"It's not rocket science, there were some things we weren't good enough at today and we will work to improve on them.

"We had plenty of the ball around their box but we didn't have a cutting edge and never looked like scoring.

"We'll be back on the training ground tomorrow trying to put it right.

"I didn't see any head-butt incident, I just thought it was a bit of frustration and it looked as if Craigs wanted to kick the lad up the a***!"

Aberdeen only won four SPL games on the road last season and just one in 2008 - at Inverness.

They also only managed to prise one point from Motherwell last season.

So, coming hard on the heels of last week's home defeat at the hands of Caley Thistle, this represented a good day's work as Calderwood attempts to bring back something resembling the glory days.

You're more likely to find an Olympic medal in the Granite City these days than a Dons winners' gong, after Aberdeen-born canoeist David Florence took silver in the C1 men's single slalom event in Beijing this week.

While that was a thing of beauty, this was all about winning ugly.

The Dons only had one shot on target in the first half when Mark Kerr picked out Gary McDonald in the box after 27 minutes.

The former Kilmarnock midfielder's angled shot was beaten away by Smith.

At the other end, Hammell's low centre was laid off by Chris Porter but Marc Fitzpatrick's feeble shot was gathered by Jamie Langfield. That was it for the first 45 minutes but fortunately things improved after the break when both keepers pulled off a couple of stunning saves.

Smith denied Wright a debut goal after 69 minutes when he hurled himself to his right to push away his netbound header.

At the other end Langfield produced heroics to keep out headers from Paul Quinn and Porter.

In the end it was Mulgrew's flashing left foot which settled the issue after 86 minutes and it saved the Dons conceding an equaliser 60 seconds later.

Darren Smith burst into the box and seemed certain to earn Well a point until Mulgrew slid in to block from eight yards.

The young defender said: "I was just as happy with the tackle on Smith as I was with my goal.

"It was a last-ditch challenge but I thought our two central defenders were great today and didn't deserve to lose a goal.

"I didn't actually see the ball hit the net at my goal.

"I turned round just after I hit it because I felt it was going in anyway."

MOTHERWELL: Smith, Quinn, Craigan, Reynolds, Hammell, Murphy (Smith, 58), Lasley, Hughes, Fitzpatrick (O'Brien 89), Porter, Clarkson. Subs not used: Neilson, Malcolm, McGarry, Connelly, Wilson.

ABERDEEN: Langfield, Diamond (Duff 20), Severin, Considine, Mulgrew, McDonald, Derek Young, Kerr, Foster, Mackie, Miller (Wright 68). Subs not used: Bossu, De Visscher, Maguire, Smith.