Motherwell 0, Hearts 2.

Hearts won comfortably at a rain-lashed Fir Park tonight without really ever breaking sweat. It was certainly a better Motherwell performance than the St Johnstone debacle last week (not that it would be difficult) and we saw plenty of the ball, but we could probably have played on all week without scoring.

MM made only three changes to the side which went down so embarrassingly to St Johnstone, with Clarkson, Vadocz and Darren Smith replacing McDonald (suspended), Fitzpatrick and McGarry.

Motherwell had the better of the early exchanges without creating much in front of goal, however we should have taken the lead when Paterson found himself clean through, but instead of sidefooting into the net he elected to take the ball round the goalkeeper and the chance was lost. The visitors began to come into the game more, and took the lead when a free header from a corner was deflected past Graeme Smith by the unfortunate Mark Reynolds. Darren Smith had one further opportunity before the break, but we went in 1-0 down at half time.

Kevin McBride replaced the injured Brian Kerr for the second half. We had a major let off when Hearts missed a sitter, before Vadocz shot straight at Gordon and then Clarkson had a header cleared off the line. The visitors made the points safe with 20 mins to go when a dangerous cross was headed beyond his own goalkeeper by Stephen Craigan. We continued to huff and puff, and McCormack had a decent effort cleared in the closing stages, but Hearts held on to take all three points.

It's very depressing that an extremely mediocre Hearts team can come to Fir Park and win fairly comfortably without having to get out of first gear. And if this is how life is going to be like next season without Scott McDonald then it doesn't really bear thinking about. As I said earlier, we had bags of possession tonight, but every cross ball and set piece was easily dealt with by the Hearts defence. There was also plenty of effort on show, but the sad fact is that we're just not a very good team.

At least this defeat will put to bed any ridiculous notions of qualifying for the top six.

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, Corrigan, Craigan, Reynolds, Murphy (Molloy 63), Darren Smith, Kerr (McBride 45), Vadocz, Paterson, McCormack, Clarkson.
Subs not used: Martin, Quinn, Keegan, Fitzpatrick, McGarry.

Booked: Kerr, Craigan, Corrigan, McCormack.

Attendance: 4,389.