Motherwell edge closer to the top six

Motherwell’s fourth home win over Dundee United this season has edged them even closer to the top six opening a seven point gap over Inverness.

There was little between the teams in the opening stages, and the first real incident of note was the opening goal of the game in the 27^th minute.

A Forbes cross wasn’t cleared properly by Severin and it allowed Jamie Murphy to skip past a couple of defenders on the bye line before shooting home from a ridiculously acute angle.

It was two nil before half time when Chris Humphrey scored his third goal in three games. His first touch left Dixon for dead and when he raced into the box his shot took a wild deflection and spun over a stranded Pernis.

We then made an edgy start to the second half and Darren Randolph was prominent in keeping us in the game. His first save came low to his right from a Scott Robertson shot from 18 yards.

At the other end United had real problems keeping out a couple of dipping Hateley free kicks.

Randolph was back in action with 17 minutes left as he kept out an 18 yard shot from Goodwillie. He was eventually beaten with 11 minutes to go when Russell met a Dixon corner at the near post with a powerful head flick.

A minute later Swanson was clean through but he was denied by another great save from Randolph. Then with the two added minutes almost over Goodwillie found acres of space in the box but he was once again denied by Randolph to secure the three points.

The players were dead on their feet after a punishing schedule in recent weeks, but there was a dogged, determination about them in the way they held on to the three points.