Valdas grateful after receiving Gordon tonic

Motherwell 0
Hearts 1 - Mole (69)

VALDAS IVANAUSKAS today hailed Craig Gordon as one of the best goalkeepers in Europe and few could argue after his last-minute wonder save earned Hearts their first victory at Fir Park in four years. The Scotland No.1 pulled off a stunning stop with just seconds remaining at Fir Park yesterday to deny Jim Paterson a certain equaliser and ensure a precious three points would be heading back to Tynecastle.

Gordon didn't have the busiest of afternoons in Lanarkshire but showed his class with two top-drawer saves, having earlier made a brilliant reflex block from an angled Keith Lasley effort.

Ivanauskas admitted that Gordon is the best keeper, for his age, that he has ever worked with and not only labelled him the best in Scotland but insisted he could be the best in Europe.

He said: "We have the best keeper in Scotland, maybe in Europe. You don't often see such a young, solid and calm keeper. He has a big future ahead of him. He is very young but he is one of the best. I have seen a lot of keepers. I am very happy to have someone like him in my team.

"After the big pressure of the last few weeks and the bad result against Sparta, it was a relief to get all three points."

Gordon himself was typically modest about his contribution and insisted the result and not his own performance was the most important thing: "I hope that this can be a turning point for us, we showed that we can grind out results, go away from home and get the three points.

"I was pleased with the saves, but that's my job. The first one fell to Lasley at a tight angle and I just made myself as big as possible, he's smashed the shot off my shoulder and it has gone up and over the bar. It was maybe just a case of being in the right place at the right time.

"The second one, I just put up my left hand and didn't get an awful lot on it but it has come back down into my arms so I think I was maybe quite fortunate. I'm just doing my job really, obviously it's nice to hear the manager say that sort of thing but I know that next week it could all go horribly wrong, so I will just concentrate on trying to do the best I can week in, week out."

After the disappointment of their midweek UEFA Cup defeat, Hearts made sweeping changes to their starting line-up, suspension and injury ruling out Roman Bednar and Mauricio Pinilla while Ibrahim Tall was handed a starting slot following his recent return from injury.

There were four Lithuanians in from the start, Saulius Mikoliunas, Deividas Cesnauskis, Andrius Velicka and Marius Zaliukas taking their place ahead of Robbie Neilson, who dropped to the bench and Christophe Berra, who missed out altogether.

Motherwell's gameplan had to be revised just six minutes when Brian McLean was stretchered off after an innocuous-looking challenge with Paul Hartley as they chased a 50-50 ball.

The lively Scott McDonald was a constant thorn in the side of the Hearts defence and when he latched onto a headed knock-on from Richie Foran he was nippy enough to take a couple of steps with the ball at his feet and get a shot in although the Australian frontman could only fire high and wide of Gordon's goal.

Tall, who was part of a new-look three-man backline, had his right knee heavily strapped and it was given a stiff test when Richie Foran clattered into him with 20 minutes gone. Fortunately, it stood up well to the test, however the same could not be said for Cesnauskis, who was replaced with less than half an hour gone following another of those trademark Foran tackles.

Foran was involved again a couple of minutes later, picking up possession from Lasley before stabbing a pass at a perfect weight into the feet of McDonald. However, the striker was flagged offside and in any case his low shot came back off the base of the post. There was a strangely subdued atmosphere to the game, despite both sides having their own reasons for being desperate to pick up all three points. That was all to change, though, when Lasley lunged in late on Neil McCann, on to replace Cesnauskis, leaving the Tynecastle winger in agony and clutching his right knee. Considering McCann's injury worries of last season, Hartley was outraged by the challenge and remonstrated with the Motherwell man before Foran needlessly became embroiled in the row, the upshot being that all three found themselves in the referee's notebook.

Foran was getting himself about the park and within minutes of that booking beat the offside trap to close in on Gordon's goal at an angle. However, he couldn't keep his shot on target and fired inches wide of the keeper's left-hand post.

Motherwell could - and possibly deserved to - have snatched the lead right on the stroke of half-time when sub Steven McGarry released McDonald and he scampered to the edge of the box before releasing a powerful effort that screamed just over the bar.

The spat between Hartley and Foran was put to bed as the two men walked up the tunnel at half-time, the Hearts man approaching his opponent to offer a sporting handshake. The Jambos midfielder was unlucky not to give his side the edge after the restart when Velicka spun the ball across the face of goal from the left flank. It was a cracking ball but there was just too much pace on it for Hartley, racing in at the back post.

However, Hearts should have been handed an opportunity on a plate in 66 minutes when Hartley appeared to be nudged over by Stephen Craigan inside the box. Whistler Iain Brines didn't agree, though, and waved their claims for a spot-kick aside, much to the chagrin of both players and fans.

The breakthrough didn't take long to materialise, though, and it was the youngest player on the park who bagged the honours, Hartley and McCann combining to tee-up Jamie Mole.

The 18-year-old looked to have taken one touch too many after rounding Colin Meldrum but showed a maturity way beyond his years as he simply turned back and had another go, firing the ball into the net and evading the two Motherwell defenders on the goal-line.

The stadium announcer was clearly so stunned by the strike that he credited the goal to Sue Townsend's fictional character Adrian Mole - but if he carries on putting in performances like this one, it won't be long before the powerfully-built frontman's name is on everyone's lips. Mikoliunas should have put the seal on the win in the dying minutes only to blaze high over the bar when it had looked easier to score and it was down to Gordon to make sure of the victory with that last-gasp stop.

The Hearts players were relieved to have answered their critics with a victory and gathered in a spontaneous huddle at the end of the 90 minutes, Gordon admitting that while the performance may not have been pleasing on the eye, the players showed great commitment to the cause: "We wanted to show that we were united behind the coaching staff. We want to bring the club back to what it should be. Sometimes when you've lost a couple of games you have to go out and get a win by any means possible, it's not all about playing pretty football."

Taken from the Scotsman