It is to the immense credit of everyone associated with the club that Motherwell have tried gamely, and with no little dignity and grace, to return to a sense of normality following the untimely death of Phil O'Donnell last month.

It is little surprise, however, that watching their captain and close friend lose his life on the Fir Park pitch has had a lasting and traumatic effect on the team-mates he left behind.

So when David Clarkson, O'Donnell's nephew, lay prone on the field after a clash of heads with Jose Goncalves, it did not take a massive leap of the imagination to work out why the other Motherwell players seemed overly agitated after Craig Thomson, the referee, chose to play on rather than allow the stricken player to receive medical treatment.

To compound their frustration, Hearts continued up the park to score the only goal of the game, Stephen Craigan inadvertently diverting Eggert Jonsson's wayward shot past his own goalkeeper.
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The laws of the game permit the referee to make a judgment on whether to stop the game based on his quick assessment of the seriousness of the injury, although in certain instances, like possible concussion, it has become the norm for play to be halted immediately. That Thomson played on seemed to irritate the Motherwell players more than losing a goal from the move.

"I asked the referee at half-time and he said there was a new rule that, unless a player is seriously injured and he claims he Clarkson wasn't, then play has to go on," said Paul Quinn, the Motherwell captain. "But certain things have happened here and some of us get a fright when we see players go down.

"The goal has nothing to do with it - we just feel that the game should have been stopped. We thought that a clash of heads meant the game is stopped and usually if there is a change in rules we are made aware of it as it's us who are playing the game.

"David actually had to go off as a result of the collision and I don't know how any referee could turn around and say he's not seriously injured. David's got an eye like a boxer's now so how the referee can say he is okay is beyond me.

"A head knock can take several seconds or minutes to kick in. It's not a hard decision to make - if there's a clash of heads you stop the game."

That Clarkson's injury was the main talking point speaks volumes for a match ruined by the weather and the surface. A howling wind rendered it impossible to play long balls with any degree of accuracy while the mud-caked pitch disabused either team from trying to pass their way forward.

Some entertainment was provided by two Slovakian fans situated at the back of the main stand who, with Motherwell scarves tied around their foreheads, chanted noisily throughout the 90 minutes.

The suspicion that drink had been taken was confirmed when two empty vodka bottles were spotted rolling about at their feet. Few could blame them on an afternoon best forgotten.

Taken from the Herald