Motherwell put in a strong display but fell just short in the capital as Hearts won 1-0 at Tynecastle.
Stephen Robinson made four changes from the side who drew 1-1 with Celtic, with Peter Hartley and Liam Donnelly missing out through injury, Allan Campbell dropping to the bench, and Connor Sammon ineligible to face his parent club.
In came Andy Rose and Alex Rodriguez-Gorrin to the midfield, whilst Curtis Main returned to the starting eleven and Charles Dunne made his return from a lengthy injury lay-off.
And, in truth, it was a terrific showing from Robinson’s men, who were extremely unlucky to find themselves a goal down after 14 minutes.
They were even unluckier not to be a goal up after just eight minutes when Main curled a terrific finish in to the top corner from the edge of the box. However, celebrations were cut short when Willie Collum ruled the goal out for a foul in the build up to what was a terrific finish.
Jusy minutes later, the hosts took the lead.
From a cross in to the box, Peter Haring’s wayward header ricocheted off Dunne’s shoulder and beyond Mark Gillespie to gift the hosts a fortuitous lead.
But from that point onwards, the Steelmen looked on top in the capital.
Dunne nearly made amends when his header from a David Turnbull corner flashed narrowly wide of the mark.
Mans towards the end of the encounter, Danny Johnson nearly kept his strong goal scoring form up when he fired goalwards from inside the box, but it clipped the heel of Rodriguez-Gorrin as the hosts held on for all three points.
