ON a day in which Hearts paid tribute to the 8000 supporters who helped finance the reconstruction of their club by sporting their names on the shirt, it was a matter of great frustration to the manager, Robbie Neilson, that his players sold the jerseys.

Motherwell played well in this hugely entertaining encounter. On the balance of play and possession, a point was the least they deserved. However, it cannot be denied that the visitors slit their own throats with some abysmal defending.

It took just 85 seconds for them to fall behind. Blazej Augustyn, their captain, was miles short with a passback and permitted Louis Moult to race through on goal. Neil Alexander was off his line to put in a timely block, but he would be caught napping just a matter of seconds later.

Marvin Johnson swung a hopeful ball in from the left that Alexander looked like claiming comfortably. Despite getting both hands to the ball, though, he dropped it under pressure from Moult and permitted the Englishman to convert.

Juanma got the Tynecastle side back level shortly afterwards, but they were caught at sixes and sevens again early in the second half when Johnson made it 2-1. Osman Sow snatched a point with a spectacular long-distance strike 21 minutes from time, but Neilson was not to be consoled over a display that, generally, lacked quality in addition to composure.

“We made life difficult for ourselves at the start and lost a silly goal,” he said. “We got back into it and lost another bad goal. Our quality when we got into good areas was not good enough either.

“We were in a good position in the league and now we have dropped to third. We were playing against a team that was second bottom and would have liked to have won.”

Neilson also refused to complain about Motherwell’s opening goal despite the fact his players complained bitterly over Moult’s challenge on Alexander.

“Generally, you get a free-kick in those situations, but the referee made his decision,” he said.

That contentious goal was the perfect platform on which to build for a Motherwell side endeavouring to bounce back from two desperately poor displays against Inverness and Ross County, but they simply could not keep the door bolted for any length of time and conceded the equaliser on nine minutes.

Sow split the home defence and played Juanma in with a delicate through ball. The Spaniard took care of the rest, dinking his effort over goalkeeper Connor Ripley and into the net.

Ripley then denied Sow, who had cut inside past Kieran Kennedy, from close-range and concerns grew over the Fir Park side falling apart under pressure again, but their display contained an encouraging mix of energy and resolve that was rewarded on 65 minutes thanks, in no small part, to some excellent refereeing from Steven McLean.

Juanma had squandered a great opportunity at the other end when failing to hit the target when one-on-one with the keeper and Motherwell broke upfield. Scott McDonald was taken out by Igor Rossi on the Main Stand touchline after forcing the ball onto Johnson, but McLean wisely played the advantage with Hearts all over the place.

Johnson advanced into the area, wriggled clear of Augustyn and rifled a left-footed shot past Alexander and into the far corner. At that point, McLean booked Rossi for his earlier challenge.

The home side just needed to bed in and take the sting out of the match. They conceded four minutes later. Mind you, there are just some goals you can do very little about.

There seemed to be little immediate danger when Sow took a pass from substitute Prince Buaben around 35 yards out. The Swede saw something many of us didn’t, though, and released an absolute thunderbolt that flew over the head of Ripley and almost ripped a hole in the net.

Sow simply turned round and walked back towards his own half. There were no celebrations, nothing. Perhaps he was as shellshocked as the rest of us.

Had Hearts gone on to win, it would have been hard on Motherwell. They probably should have taken the points, though. With eight minutes remaining, Juanma forced a save from Ripley after Arnaud Djoum’s initial effort had been blocked by a claret-and-amber shirt.

The ball fell perfectly for Sam Nicholson inside the area, though. His effort was wild and impetuous, though, and ended up high and wide.

“We had more chances than them, but the result is not so important to me at this stage,” said Mark McGhee, the Motherwell manager. “It is about making progress and the changes we need to make and I think we have one or two really good players in the squad.

“I went to the sponsors before the game and said to them that, if Marvin Johnson played the way he had trained during the week, he would be unplayable.

“He pretty much did that. He was fantastic.”