Mark McGhee wants to show keeper Craig Samson he's wanted at Well

Mark McGhee declared Craig Samson would be offered the chance to become Motherwell number one next season after the goalkeeper kept a debut clean sheet in a 1-0 victory over Hearts.

Samson did not have a great deal to do as Motherwell dominated at Fir Park, but he did produce one excellent stop to prevent Callum Paterson volleying home following a corner.

The former Kilmarnock goalkeeper has had to play second fiddle to on-loan Middlesbrough player Connor Ripley since joining in September, but the 32-year-old's patience is set to be rewarded.

We had intended to (give him a game before the end of the season) anyway then, with Connor being a wee bit ill at the beginning of the week, it ensured the decision was today,'' Motherwell manager McGhee said.

He will get another game before the end of the season. We have made sure that he knows he is wanted here next year. So we wanted to give him some sort of outing.

Connor has been fantastic, but will go back to his home club.''

Motherwell looked sharper and hungrier from the start and Lionel Ainsworth fired them into the lead in the 28th minute with a powerful drive.

Louis Moult and Scott McDonald missed good chances to double the lead and Motherwell squandered other openings on the counter-attack, but they were well worth their seventh win in nine games, which moved them up to fourth in the Ladbrokes Premiership. McGhee, who lost skipper Keith Lasley to a groin strain at half-time, said: We would have liked another goal just to give us breathing space, because 1-0 is always a dangerous score and they came on to us in the last 10 minutes, but I thought it was a very good performance.

They have trained so well all week that I would have been disappointed if they didn't take that into the game and they did. They trained the way they played and I was well pleased with it.''

Hearts were flat in the opening half-hour as they missed the chance to cut an eight-point deficit on Aberdeen, and Motherwell always retained an edge despite the visitors' improvement.

Head coach Robbie Neilson said: We were poor. It just wasn't good enough.We could have brought life into the game, but we just didn't do it. We need to come here and be better than that.

We spoke after the game and at half-time as well, if you want to go and challenge for things then you have to perform all the time. You can't just wait for the game to come to you.

We didn't deserve to get anything out the game. Motherwell were the better team, they had a better attacking threat than us, they worked harder than us.

It wasn't acceptable for us. We brought a huge crowd down and we didn't do enough to excite them.''