Match Date : Monday 11 November 1996 Competition : Premier League Attendance : 5,541
TOOTHLESS 'WELL SLIP AGAIN
Motherwell 0 Hearts 2
Motherwell slipped to their fourth defeat in the last five matches following another dissapointing night at Fir Park. Despite having possession for a fair slice of the match it was the visitors who left with all three points. The homesters did have the bulk of play in a fairly quiet first half, but failed to turn possession into goals. The early threat came from Hearts, but Brian Martin intercepted Paille's pass to Cameron. The over-fussy referee then enfuriated the home support by booking both Martin and Burns for innocuous challeneges, whilst Goss of Hearts went without reprimand following some meaty challenges. Tommy Coyne, on for his first start since the opening day of the season, headed tamely into Roussett's hands from a McSkimming cross, then McSkimming himself should have done better when put clean through by Burns. McSkimming, however, opted to control the ball with his first touch, and by the time he got a shot in Rousett was there to smother the ball when a first-time shot would surley have opened the scoring. In between Burns headed a Fulton inswinger clear on the goal-line. As the first-half drew to a close Rousett's French team-mate was booked when he clearly dived in the box.
Half-Time Motherwell 0, Hearts 0Motherwell fans must have known how things were going to go in the second, the last two matches being goalless at half-time with Motherwell conceeding heavily follwing the break. Hearts opened up the match with some concerted attacking, and went ahead in the 54th. minute, Paillie heading home a free-kick in acres of space from Goss's cross. This appeared to be the spur Motherwell needed and they began to look a bit more threatening. Dougie Arnott was involved twice in incidents which almost dragged the Home team level, firstly his header smacked off the centre of the cross-bar only to rebound to safety as far as Hearts were concerned, and then, attempting to head on a flick from Davies, missed the ball. This appeared to distract Roussett and the ball bounced off the upright and again off to safety. As Motherwell stepped up the pace, McSkimming then nicked a header in at the far post which appeared net-bound until Rousset popped up on the line. It was Hearts, however, with Robertson looking very lively up front, who gave the impression they had a finer cutting edge, and so this proved in the last minute of play. Running on to a long ball, Robertson outstripped the bare Motherwell defence caught upfield chasing the leveller, and he put the match beyond doubt with a low shot to Howie's right-hand post. This virtually cleared the Motherwell ends of the ground, and sent the Hearts fans into raptures. The end of the match was met with a loud call of dissapproval from the Motherwell fans, now extremely concerned having slipped to ninth place, whereas Hearts have the perfect boost as they prepare for an Edinburgh Derby on Saturday and a Cup Final a week later. No-one could fault the Motherwell team for lack of effort, but something must be done quickly if they are to stave off a repeat of last-years near-disasterous flirt with relegation.