“Last week we were rightly accused of sloppiness and there was lack of concentration, we were stretched far too often last week – I thought we were the exact opposite tonight. Motherwell played the game in front of us which can cause an anxiety at times but all in all we never really gave them an opportunity.

“It was the same back four that was playing last week and it was the exact opposite tonight, they were solid, resolute, full of discipline and we kept Motherwell at arm’s length. After last week we were needing that, the positives are a very good goal from Jonny to get us started in the game, a clean sheet and we got the three points and showed that when required we can grind results out.

“We’ve been better this season, of course we have, but we have been better and gifted points by being far too open. I did feel that at times on the back of last week the players were maybe reluctant to come out of their position and take part in the game a wee bit more, there might have been a natural apprehension there just to win the game.

“We have banged on all week about defending and talked about the importance of clean sheets knowing that we have got a goal threat and I think we carried enough goal threat in the second half that we could maybe have scored a couple more goals. Motherwell playing with their back three were good enough to step out and get on the ball and that meant that we couldn’t get pressure on them and we defended a bit deeper than we ordinarily would.

“When they played diagonals into Sutton I thought we dealt with that ball well but what we didn’t really do was put them under enough pressure at times. Motherwell did well at keeping the ball but they never really hurt us and actually it was more comfortable than we thought.

“You don’t change your goalkeeper too readily, there is loyalty there. Jamie has done well last season and he has done well in games this season but when you are losing goals sometimes a change there can help the situation. We have made a change there at goalkeeper and it’s not as if we have put a keeper in that we are not sure of, we are confident that Scott can come in and he showed that against Livingston. Since he came in the door and at training every day he is held in high regard by the players and ourselves, he has been desperate to play his part and tonight he got his opportunity.

“For goalkeepers sometimes they get a bit more leeway at times as you aren’t as quick to change them as an outfield player so the other goalkeeper has to sit that bit longer but when they do go in they have to be ready to try and take the opportunity. We have got good competition there and knowing Jamie as I do he will be itching to get back in and push Scott to get back in the side and that’s the way it should be.

“We have worked hard with the back four all week and sometimes decision making and positional sense can make you look like a poorer defender but we got back to making sure that we were nice and compact and solid with our work.

“It was a night where defenders had to defend first and we suffered a wee bit going the other way because of that.”

“It was a night where defenders had to defend first and we suffered a wee bit going the other way because of that.”