Well in high spirits as the Jambos hit rock bottom
At the end of this wet and windswept encounter the players went their separate ways, Motherwell off to a Christmas night out in Manchester and Hearts down to the (joint) foot of the table.
And if the scoreline was a tight one, had any casual football fan wandered in to Fir Park by chance they would not have had the slightest difficulty identifying which of these sides was in need of a new manager.
Austin McPhee, Hearts caretaker manager, had the handicap of getting one of his players sent off but in truth, it was a red herring.
By the time Jake Mulraney saw red for an ill-advised exchange with referee Alan Muir, the regulation 90 was up.
It was, literally, all over bar the shouting at the officials.
Those same officials who Motherwell manager Steven Robinson argued, cost his team a more comfortable victory when disallowing Alan Campbell’s tap in from Liam Polworth for offside.
“From what I’m being told it was a goal, it was onside, and I believe that would have finished the game off,” he said.
“When it’s only 1-0 you are under a bit of pressure still.
“They launched every ball into our box but I thought it was a really mature performance.
“We stood up to that physical element and I thought we thoroughly deserved to win.
“So they have certainly earned their Christmas night out and hopefully they go and behave themselves, which I am sure they will do.
“They are a good tight-knit group and the boys who aren’t in the team are the ones who control how the dressing room is.
“The ones in the team are easy, they are happy. It’s the other 10 who have to manage the discipline and they do it very well.”
In terms of the action itself, this one was a bit of a slow burner.
At length, though, Motherwell settled into a decent rhythm.
Several times they mounted decent attacks, only to be let down by a poor final ball. That all changed, though, shortly before the break when they strung it all together.
Jake Carroll played Jermaine Hylton out wide on the left. The winger nutmegged Craig Halkett and advanced along the by-line.
Looking up, he spotted Chris Long screaming for the ball and gave him his wish by cutting it back on the angle.
Long took it first time and swept in at the near post for the first goal, not only of the game but also of yesterday’s entire Scottish Premiership card.
“It has been a good day,” said the Everton Academy graduate.
“Big Duncan Ferguson is a legend, isn’t he? I was in the FA Youth Cup side, so I worked with him for two years. Him and Kevin Sheedy. I hope he gets (the Everton manager’s job) permanently, I think he should do in my eyes,
Long was to the fore early in the second half, too, in the one that got chopped off.
There was nothing wrong with his run and cutback to set up Liam Polworth. But when Alan Campbell turned in his teammate’s shot from close range, the far-side assistant instantly raised his flag.
Campbell looked distraught, the implication being he thought the ball would have gone in anyway but had decided it best to make sure.
Hearts caretaker manager Austin McPhee had to do something and he opted to go for power over trickery, replacing Jamie Walker with Uche Ikpeazu.
It almost paid off, the striker using his strength to roll his marker to give himself a sight of goal but his effort was a foot too high.
“I will definitely have a wee look at the table now,” said Robinson.
“We are third now and there’s a long, long way to go in the season, we have to temper expectations a little bit.
“Our aim first and foremost is to get enough points to stay in this division and then we will look where we are.
“We set a target of nine points after losing two games, and we have managed to win three and not concede any goals.
“So it’s certainly a big month for us.”