5.30pm

This afternoon's game at Fir Park ended in a 2-1 win for Motherwell, a result which lifts us off the bottom of the league - for 24 hours at least.

Terry Butcher made two changes to his side, with Francois Dubourdeau replacing Steve Woods in goal, and David Cowan handed a starting place with William Kinniburgh dropping to the bench.  We kicked-off the match in a 4-4-2 formation.

After just 7 mins TB was forced into a tactical alteration when Scott Leitch left the field injured to be replaced by Shaun Fagan.  It was the visitors who probably made the better start to the match, although Dubourdeau was never really called into action.  That said, it was still slightly against the run of play when we took the lead after 30 mins, but what a cracking goal it was.  Hammell won a tackle out on the left wing and fed Pearson, who sent in an early ball into the box where it was met by Clarkson with a diving header.  We doubled our lead not long afterwards when Hammell's free-kick into the box was cleared as far as Fagan, and he dispatched the ball into the corner of the net from around 15 yards.  Half-time and we were 2-0 up and coasting.

The second half was a different story, with Hibs dominating possession for long periods and Motherwell rarely seen as an attacking force.  We survived a few near misses before the vistitors eventually pulled a goal back through O'Connor with around 20 mins to go.  Hibs pushed for the equaliser, which left large gaps in their defence and substitute Khemas almost took advantage with a shot which flew across the face of goal.  We had a further chance to kill the game off in injury time when Pearson found himself through on goal, but his shot was saved by Colgan and Khemas lashed the rebound wide.  In the end though it didn't matter, as we held on for a 2-1 victory.

Yet again we are able to beat a team from the top six, but for some reason we are unable to compete against the likes of Partick, Livingston and Dundee Utd.  This was a much improved display from the debacle at Tannadice last week, with Pearson and Hammell in particular turning in much better performances. It certainly wasn't our best showing of the season, and the football wasn't exactly pretty to watch at times during the second half, but in our position results are all that count.  We can only hope now that Dundee Utd don't pick up all 3 points in the Tayside derby tomorrow.

Finally, a special mention must go to today's referee, who turned in one of the most incompetent displays I have seen all season.  I lost count of the number of free-kicks for climbing awarded in favour of Mixu Paatelainen when he was clearly making no attempt whatsoever to play the ball.  And in the closing stages of the match the Hibs goalkeeper grabbed a Motherwell player by the neck and threw him to the ground, only to be shown merely a yellow card.  And quite how he managed to find 5 minutes of injury time to play I will never know.

Team: Dubourdeau, Corrigan, Vaughan, Partridge, Hammell, Cowan, Adams, Leitch (Fagan 7), Pearson, Clarkson, Craig (Khemas 70).
Subs not used: Woods, Lasley, Kinniburgh.

Booked: Adams, Cowan, Fagan.

Attendance: 4,999.

Cast your vote in our new Opinion Poll:

Who is your Player of the Year so far?