6.15pm

Today's result: Motherwell 1, Livingston 0.

We made hard work of beating bottom of the table Livingston at Fir Park this afternoon. An early Foran strike should have led to further goals and a much more comfortable win, but we ended up hanging on for the three points.

Terry Butcher resisted the temptation to throw the players returning from injury straight back into the starting eleven. Instead he stuck with the same side which played at Pittodrie a fortnight ago, with the likes of Corrigan, Hamilton, Paterson and Fitzpatrick having to settle for places on the bench.

Foran had already missed an early chance before he gave Motherwell the lead after 21 mins when he headed home an O'Donnell cross. Not long afterwards David Clarkson had a chance to double the lead when he was put clean through by Kerr, but the Scotland Under-21 man's shot was saved.

The second half was awful. Probably our only effort was a long range shot from Kerr which was held by the Livi goalkeeper, but other than that it was the visitors who did all the attacking. Late on they carved out a few great chances to equalise, including a free-kick which hit the bar and a Greg Strong header which went inches wide, but in the end we held on for the three points.

As you will probably have gathered from the length of this match report, this was a terrible game with few incidents of real note. Had Clarkson not missed that first half sitter we would probably have gone on to win comfortably, but instead we allowed Livi back into the match and were probably fortunate to come away with the win. Far too many players had off days, and I can't think of many of deserve pass marks. Apart from the goal, probably the highlight of the 90 mins was the return of Martyn Corrigan, who looked as assured as ever when he came on as a second half substitute.

The win moves us up to sixth, but a big improvement is needed if we are to avoid two humpings in the forthcoming Old Firm double header.

Team (4-4-2): Graeme Smith, McLean, Kinniburgh, Craigan, Hammell, Fagan (Corrigan 62), Kerr, O'Donnell, Foran, Scott McDonald (Hamilton 66), Clarkson (Paterson 88).
Subs not used: Meldrum, Paul Quinn, Fitzpatrick, Darren Lee Smith.

Booked: Fagan.

Attendance: 4,507.