6.30pm

Today's result: Motherwell 1, Hibernian 0.

After our recent poor spell of form, this was much more like it.  In fact, the scoreline doesn't really do us any justice as we thoroughly deserved the three points against a very poor Hibs side.

At long last, Mark McGhee decided to change things round a bit, with the team lining up in an unfamiliar 4-4-2 formation that saw Ross McCormack dropped to the bench, with Bob Malcolm in midfield and Simon Lappin replacing Stevie Hammell at left-back.

The only goal of the game came after just three minutes, when Clarkson controlled Quinn's diagonal pass on his chest before shooting beyond the Hibs goalkeeper.  We went on to dominate the remainder of the first half, with Quinn missing a sitter as chance after chance was passed up.  The visitors' only attacking contribution in the opening 45 mins was a Shiels effort which rebounded off the crossbar.

Motherwell continued to dictate proceedings after the break, without carving out as many opportunities as we did in the first half.  A second goal would have killed the game, but we were almost made to pay for our profligacy when Hibs forced a great save from Graeme Smith with only 5 mins left - probably the Motherwell goalkeeper's first real action all afternoon.  As it turned out, one goal was enough and we held on to claim a vital three points.

When you see Motherwell playing like they did today, it simply makes it all the more frustrating that we didn't perform in so many of the big games that we've had recently.  Still, the win moves us level on points with Dundee Utd and still firmly in the hunt for 3rd place.  Man of the match today for we was David Clarkson by a mile, although Hughes, Lappin, Lasley and Malcolm (there, I said it) were also excellent.

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, Quinn, Craigan, Reynolds, Lappin, Hughes, Lasley (McGarry 87), Malcolm, Fitzpatrick, Clarkson (McCormack 73), Porter.

Subs not used: Daniels, Brian McLean, Darren Smith, Murphy, Archdeacon.

Motherwell scorer: Clarkson (3).

Booked: Malcolm, Fitzpatrick.

Attendance: 6,580.

Mark McGhee's post-match comments were as follows:
"It was a really important game for both teams; whether we'd won, lost or drawn it wasn't decisive, but psychologically it would have been worse for us had we lost it than for Hibs.  We made a positive start and it was great to score an early goal as it gave us something to hang on to.  It's still very close so it's a great result, but more important for us were the signs that we've got back on our own pitch and the performance went back up to something like what we managed earlier in the season.

"We ask a lot of the three strikers when we play 4-3-3 and felt we were starting to get a bit of fatigue creatively.  We needed to be just a little more robust and playing the two strikers with four midfield players gave us that; Bob Malcolm was terrific, the two strikers worked very hard and Ross McCormack came on at the end and kept the ball for us."

Our thrice postponed home game with Celtic will now take place on Sunday, April 13 at 2pm and will be broadcast live on Setanta.

The club are organising an official Player of the Season & Sponsor's Evening on Sunday, May 11 in the Shawlands Hotel in Larkhall.  Details from the Official Site.

The club managed to make it on to the front page of yesterday's Sun after it was revealed we've got three convicted murderers helping out at Fir Park as part of their prisoner rehabilitation.  You can read the club's response from the Official Site.

Ross McCormack was in the papers this week having a good moan about how the fans have supposedly turned on him during his recent poor run of performances.  You can read about it here, although I can't say I've noticed him being subjected to any abuse myself.

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What is your reaction to the signing of Bob Malcolm?

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