Despite only scoring two goals in the league this season, Livi almost shocked Well after five minutes as Graeme Smith was forced to tip a Paul Dalglish header over for a corner.
The home side responded well with their pacy front men causing Livingston problems.
Firstly Scott McDonald burst down the left to hit a shot from an acute angle into the side netting. Then David Clarkson left Harald Pinxten for dead, but he found he had also outpaced his own support.
It was therefore no surprise when Well took the lead when Livi failed to deal with a corner and Phil O'Donnell found space on the right to send a cross on to the head of Richie Foran, who made no mistake from six yards.
The lead should have been doubled after 31 minutes when Brian Kerr's through ball sent Clarkson clear, but the young striker appeared to have too much time and hit a weak effort that was saved by Roddy McKenzie.
Livingston made three changes at the start of the second half, but despite that it looked as though Motherwell would go on and score again as McKenzie had to palm a Kerr screamer over the bar.
The game did change and Livi started to look the more likely to score with Greg Strong and Robert Snodgrass coming close with headers on the hour mark. This was followed five minutes later by an Allan Walker header that also flashed wide of Smith's goal.
The visitors came close after 81 minutes, but Paul Tierney was unlucky to see his shot crash back of the cross bar from a free-kick just outside the box.
Player-manager Paul Lambert felt that his best decision on the day was to take himself off at half-time as he said at the end of the game: "It was the best decision I made as the team was terrific in the second half and the Paul Tierney shot may have gone in on a different day," he said.
On the other hand, Well boss Terry Butcher felt that his side should have had the game won in the first half: He said: "We had chances to be three up at half-time, but in the end we just couldn't get that crucial second goal, but at least we had a goal to defend which gave us something to hold on to."