Motherwell 0, Hearts 1

A first half own goal by Stephen Craigan was enough to gift Hearts victory at Fir Park this afternoon, in a match that was completely ruined as a spectacle by the high wind, rutted pitch and utterly incompetent refereeing.

There was one change to the side which defeated Inverness in midweek, with Stephen Hughes returning in place of Darren Smith.

Motherwell fell behind 12 minutes into a diabolical first half when Craigan spectacularly sliced a Jonsson shot which was heading for the corner flag into his own net, although the goal was mired in controversy as the referee had allowed play to continue despite Clarkson being down with a head knock. There also appeared to be a handball in the build up to the goal, but again the referee took no action. The first 45 mins then petered out, without Motherwell creating any sort of goalscoring opportunity.

There was little improvement after the break, although at least we forced the Hearts goalkeeper into making a couple of saves, most notably from a Ross McCormack free kick. But I'm afraid that was about it as far as goalmouth action was concerned, with Hearts holding on to take all three points.

Our long ball tactic, which worked so well against ICT, today simply played straight into the hands of a physical, aggressive Hearts defence which dealt comfortably with everything that was thrown at them. Although Hearts didn't really deserve the win, I don't think we can argue that we did enough in an attacking sense to have too many complaints.

At least Dundee Utd dropped two points at home to Falkirk, and with our next two games away from the dreaded Fir Park pitch we might actually see a return to some passing football.

Team (4-3-3): Graeme Smith, Quinn, Craigan (Jamie Murphy 84), Reynolds, Hammell, Hughes (Darren Smith 55), Lasley, Fitzpatrick, Clarkson (Lappin 30), Porter, McCormack.
Subs Not Used: Daniels, Brian McLean, Danny Murphy, Archdeacon.

Booked: McCormack, Craigan.

Attendance: 5,925.