Stephen Craigan Goes Through The Mill In his First Motherwell Game

Stephen Craigan endured rather than enjoyed his first game as Motherwell interim manager but his players gave him the victory he demanded against Partick Thistle.

A Freddie Frans own goal and a close-range finish from Scott McDonald earned Motherwell a 2-1 win but they had to battle all the way for three Premiership points after David Amoo headed home Thistle's third goal of the season in the 78th minute.

The bottom club also hit the post through Steven Lawless and Kevin Nisbet but Motherwell held on to move into ninth spot and restore some cheer at Fir Park following League Cup defeat by Morton and the sacking of Ian Baraclough.

But Craigan said: 'I can't enjoy that. My Saturdays over the last three years have been a lot more enjoyable than that. But I knew that was going to be the case. The game was never going to be a classic - two teams who are struggling for a bit of form and results. We had the disappointment during the week and 120 minutes in a lot of our players' legs.

He added: 'I said to them, no matter how you do it, three points was a must. I didn't care how it happened, we will deal with that as we go along. I told them on Friday that everything they did from then on was geared to getting three points. It's going to take a lot of hard work, it's going to be physically demanding, but you have to do it. And credit to every single one of them, that's what they did.'

The 38-year-old former Motherwell skipper added: 'I can't even remember what the game was like. I just know Stephen McManus and Kieran Kennedy headed a lot of balls, but that's just because that's what happened in the last five minutes. I'm trying to think what happened in the first half. Someone said we had chances and I said: 'Did we?'. 'The first minute seems like yesterday. I've worked at international level under-19s and worked with Motherwell under-20s and the games never seem as long as that. Maybe that's what a bit of pressure does and probably desperation, because we needed the three points.'

Motherwell have received 57 applications for the manager's job - contender Mixu Paatelainen was at Fir Park to watch the game - but Craigan is not among them yet. But he will talk again with owner Les Hutchison.

'I spoke to Les on Wednesday and I was told to take the team on Saturday and we will take it from there,' he said. 'I will speak to him later and give him a rundown on how the team went. I was asked if I would be interested in the job but I said: 'The manager has left his position an hour ago so I wouldn't be in any frame of mind to give you a yes or a no'. And he said: 'That's fine, we will speak as we go'.

Thistle manager Alan Archibald bemoaned his team's defending. He said: 'I thought we deserved at least a point overall but the two goals we lost were very disappointing especially when we had so much of the play. We had a mountain to climb after that but to be fair to the lads, we showed some character to get back into the game. We got the goal and pushed them all the way but it wasn't to be.'