Today's result: Motherwell 2, St Mirren 1.

We recorded our first home win of the season by coming from behind to beat St Mirren this afternoon.  It was far from convincing at times, especially in a dire first half showing that was sadly reminiscent of the Malpas era, but we'll gladly take the three points.

The suspended Chris Porter was joined on the sidelines by Craigan and Hughes, with Sutton, McGarry and Fitzpatrick coming in to the side.  Lasley continued at right back with Quinn in the middle and Malcolm in midfield.

I think the less said about the first half, the better.  Motherwell seemed completely out of sorts, allowing St Mirren to dominate the midfield and create numerous chances.  The visitors took a deserved lead on 29 minutes when Mehmet was given all the time in the world for fire beyond Smith.  Our only effort of note during the opening 45 mins was a Malcolm free kick which rebounded off the crossbar.

Things picked up a bit after the break, and we were level within three minutes of the restart when Sutton headed home from a Hammell corner.  Clarkson and Murphy both went close before Malcolm bundled a Hammell cross over the line to put us ahead.  Hammell then hit the crossbar before the visitors were reduced to 10 men, with Miranda receiving a straight red card for an off-the-ball incident which just about everyone in the ground missed.

No matter how welcome the three points are, this was poor stuff and a dramatic improvement is needed when Nancy come to town on Thursday.  For me, the only bright spot was the performance of Jamie Murphy, who was beating players for fun in an almost Faddy-esque fashion.  Keith Lasley also did ok playing out of position, but his presence was sorely missed in the middle of the park where Fitzpatrick, McGarry and Malcolm contributed very little.  Upfront, Sutton worked tirelessly without having a huge impact, while Clarkson seems to have returned to his form of two seasons ago.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect of today's game was the lack of options we had available from the bench.  Had St Mirren held onto their lead for longer then we would really have been struggling as there was not one player there you would have fancied to come on and turn things around for us.

Still, a win's a win!

Team (4-3-3): Graeme Smith, Lasley, Quinn, Reynolds, Hammell, McGarry, Malcolm, Fitzpatrick, Clarkson (Darren Smith 89), Sutton, Murphy.
Subs Not Used: Nielsen, O'Brien, Connolly, Forbes, Archdeacon, Hutchinson.

Motherwell scorers: Sutton (48), Malcolm (62).

Booked: Fitzpatrick.

Attendance: 4,786.

Following four straight defeats, Mark McGhee was understandably happy with today's result but not necessarily the performance:
"Given the previous four results, I think there was a wee question mark hanging over them at half-time.  But sometimes these things are good for you because they answered that question so they'll be feeling a bit better about themselves.  I looked at the clock after five minutes and we should have been ahead at least once, but instead we lost a goal and then it was a three-quarters performance in the first half.  As they went back out, we said, 'Now is the time to see who's prepared to stand up and be the one who tries to make it happen', instead of us all standing back and waiting for Jamie Murphy to be the one.

"I'm happy with the result but not the performance.  We made hard work of it and I'm really quite relieved.  The goal early in the second half was crucial.

"Jamie Murphy was brilliant, but I thought there was a danger in the first half that we all stood back and waited for the Jamie Murphy, show when there are others out there with the ability to win us a game.  I don't think we need any 'kidology' to the French team - there's no question that Murphy will be playing on Thursday, he's the first one on the sheet.  Stephen Craigan couldn't have played today but will be fit for Thursday; Stephen Hughes could have played today but that would have put him at risk for Thursday and that's why we left him out."