Hearts boss Robbie Neilson shrugs off controversial Motherwell goal

Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson raised few complaints over Motherwell's controversial opener in an entertaining 2-2 Premiership draw at Fir Park.

Neil Alexander was booked for protesting to referee Steven McLean that he was fouled by Louis Moult as he dropped Marvin Johnson's second-minute cross on the line for the Motherwell striker to tap home.

Neilson said: I've not seen it again but generally you do (get a free-kick). The referee makes a decision and there's not much you can do about it, you just need to get on with it.''

Hearts soon levelled when Osman Sow set up Juanma Delgado to dink home and both sides had chances before torrential rain and driving wind made conditions extremely difficult either side of half-time, Danny Swanson hitting a free-kick out of the park as the ball blew back towards him.

Johnson turned inside and outside a man before firing Motherwell back in front 20 minutes into the second half but Sow equalised out of the blue four minutes later when his 30-yard strike soared into the top corner.

Neilson said: We're disappointed. We came here for three points. We gave ourselves a difficult start. It was a silly goal. We got back in it and lose another bad goal. We got back in it and had chances at the end but the quality wasn't good enough.

We were sitting in a good position in the league, sitting second, and we have now dropped down to third. Playing against a team that's second bottom, we would have liked to have come here and won but conditions were horrific at times. You're asking guys to play football and you can't even take a free-kick with the ball blowing about.''

Motherwell had an urgency to their play until Hearts dominated the final 20 minutes, and manager Mark McGhee was especially pleased with Johnson's contribution.

I thought we won it on chances but I'm not too interested in results at this stage,'' McGhee said.I wanted something to build on and we certainly had that.

A lot of what we did during the week and a lot of what I hoped for was out there, even focusing on Marvin.

I went to the sponsors before the game and told them, 'If Marvin plays the way he has trained this week then he will be unplayable'. And he pretty much did. He was fantastic and fulfilled everything I have seen in him since I came here. If nothing else I was so pleased with his performance and for him.

We tried to play him slightly outside. I had been asking him to tuck in a bit. Today we gave him a bit of licence and we tried hard to get the ball to him. When we did, he was dangerous, and I would like to think he could build on that and take confidence from it.''

Johnson came off with a hamstring problem not long after his goal but McGhee said: He's not damaged it, it's just tight. He did enough and gave someone else a chance.''