It seemed to start reasonably well as Motherwell controlled the majority of the ball and Higdon had a decent hit saved at the second attempt. Hearts slowly came back into things and Hutchinson was only spared the embarrassment of an own goal when Randolph reacted quickly to keep his clearance.
The opening goal came on 16 minutes when a block fell to Black and he made space to shoot into the bottom corner from 20 yards. Randolph was perhaps unsighted in not saving the shot which by no means poor, was also far from unstoppable. Law fired a half-volley half chance just over but things would soon go from bad to worse. A clutch of players could have done better, most notably Hateley, as Templeton surged clear and crossed to provide Elliott with a tap in.
We were relieved to reach half time without further damage being done and after the break even managed some half hearted pressure. Chances were completely absent though and Hearts, with Templeton a constant threat, remained the more dangerous side on the break. They too struggled to create many clear opportunities but were content to take the sting out of the tie.
Our last chance fell to Hateley who failed to redeem a simply farcical individual performance by sending a free kick just over from inside the D. We were soon put out of our misery by the full time whistle and we could have no complaints about being well beaten. A massive improvement is needed before Wednesday.