Luck turns for striker Fortune

With Saturday's SPL game at Fir Park tied at 2-2, the £3.8million summer signing from French club Nancy, recently recovered from a knee injury which kept him out for over two months, replaced Danny Fox.Within seconds he fired high past Well goalkeeper John Ruddy with his first goal since a double against St Johnstone in August, stretching the visitors' winning run to four games for the first time this season.Fortune, who scored for Nancy in a UEFA Cup win at Fir Park in October 2008, said: "I am happy because I have been waiting for this goal for a long time."When you go to a new club you want to show what you can do but the injury came and it has been difficult."But I kept going and today is maybe the start of the season for me."In a thrilling encounter played in the freezing fog, Georgios Samaras' 14th-minute opener was cancelled out before the interval by goals by Lukas Jutkiewicz and Well skipper Mark Reynolds.Aiden McGeady levelled in the 51st minute then Parkhead midfielder Barry Robson had a penalty saved by Ruddy, before Fortune came to the rescue.Tony Mowbray, who had Fortune at West Brom, was glad to see the striker get back on the goal trail."It has been a tough period for him," the Celtic boss said."I don't want to shout from the rooftops, but that's why he is here."In my opinion he is a quality football player who can score goals."I've seen the evidence of it in six months at West Brom and I am delighted for him and I hope it gives him a lift."As a human being it is difficult to stay top of the game and injuries affect players in lots of different ways."Marco was getting up and running and his injury came at a bad time for him and to spend two and half months out has been a disappointment for him."Mowbray, however, admitted that the penalty situation at Parkhead is now causing concern."That's three or four we have missed and now it is an issue in my mind," he said."We need to nominate a penalty taker now and I want to see him practising in training every day so there is a confidence about it."It will be a joint discussion. So far I have allowed the players on the field to decide who is feeling good about themselves, to take it."But you can't keep missing penalties because one of these days in a big, big game it is going to hurt us."So we have to make sure that when the opportunities come along we have someone we all have faith in to stick it in the top corner."The prelude to the game from Motherwell's point of view was manager Jim Gannon's recent criticism of refereeing standards and his on-going and public spat with the Scottish Football Association's head of referee development Hugh Dallas.However, the former Stockport boss refused to stoke the fires further."When you see a fantastic advert for the SPL like that, it is a shame that you want to talk about referees," he said."I'm proud of my team and the way they played and I don't want to be distracted by the refereeing issue."Asked if Jim O'Brien had been left out the squad after an argument at training earlier in the week, Gannon replied: "That's nonsense."Ruddy, on loan from Everton until January 4, gave the Motherwell fans a boost when he claimed he would be prepared to see out the rest of the season at Fir Park."I know conversations have gone on between Motherwell and Everton but I haven't heard anything so we will wait and see," he said."If I'm playing football then I would love to stay and staying here until the end of the season is probably the best option for everybody."

Source: Team_Talk