Hearts were defeated 1-0 by Motherwell at Tynecastle Park on Sunday afternoon.
There were three changes to the side that faced PAOK in Greece on Thursday. Peter Haring returned in midfield, meanwhile further forward, Yutaro Oda and Alex Lowry were also included from the start, replacing Kenneth Vargas, Toby Sibbick and Stephen Kingsley.
The men in maroon had the first chance of what was a scorching afternoon at Tynecastle. Lowry cut in off the left and floated a delicate ball through for Lawrence Shankland but from a tight angle, he fired wide on the volley.
The visitors then enjoyed a good spell of possession, during which Zander Clark was called into action twice. Firstly, denying Bevis Mugabi’s header from a Blair Spittal corner, before tipping over Callum Slattery’s looping volley.
Motherwell opened the scoring after 28 minutes. Spittal slipped in Slattery who finished smartly past Clark and having originally been disallowed for offside, VAR intervened, to award the goal.
Hearts were dominating possession and starting to rack up the corner count, however, Liam Kelly wasn’t being tested in the Well goal and the visitors saw out the first half with their lead still intact.
Half time: Hearts 0-1 Motherwell
There were two changes at the interval for Hearts as Toby Sibbick and Kyosuke Tagawa were introduced in place of Lowry and Oda.
There were two chances for the Jambos in the opening five minutes of the second half. Firstly, Shankland latched on to a ball over the top but was crowded out before he could test Kelly. Then substitute Tagawa headed wide from close range after being picked out by Nathaniel Atkinson.
Hearts were starting to carve out opportunities, but Motherwell defender Dan Casey threw himself in the way of two efforts midway through the half, blocking efforts from both Shankland and Liam Boyce.
The visitors were reduced to ten men, 22 minutes from time as Paul McGinn was shown a second yellow card for pulling down Boyce.
It was one-way traffic after that, but the Jambos couldn’t break down a solid Well backline as the visitors took all three points back to Lanarkshire.
Hearts: Clark, Kent, Haring (Forrest, 86), Shankland ©, Boyce, Oda (Sibbick, 46), Atkinson, Devlin, Rowles, Cochrane, Lowry (Tagawa, 46)
Subs: McGovern, Grant, Halliday, Forrest, Sibbick, Denholm, Tait, Tagawa, Vargas
Motherwell: Kelly, O’Donnell, Mugabi, Spittal, Slattery, Paton, Bair, Casey, McGinn, Spencer, Miller
Subs: Oxborough, Gent, Efford, Zdravkovski, Shaw, McGinley, Wilson, Ferrie, Bone
