Motherwell manager Steven Hammell lamented his luck after watching his side hit the post three times, be denied a goal and suffer three injuries in a 3-0 home loss to Hearts.
Blair Spittall, Matt Penney and Paul McGinn all hit the goal frame, the latter from around three yards out, and substitute Louis Moult was disallowed by the offside flag as Well fell to a clinical Hearts side in the Premiership.
Hammell said: “It hurts, 3-0 at home hurts. I don’t think that’s a reflection of the game. We just have to be more clinical and that’s the story of the last three or four games.
“We created more chances than we’ve had all season. We looked at the numbers and we had almost 30 shots on goal, hit the woodwork three times.
“Every player had their chance. Not just the strikers, every player in our team had a chance to score and we are coming away with zero, so it’s no secret what we need to work on.
Moult appeared to deny Kevin van Veen a goal when he hit the Dutch striker’s shot from close range to be flagged.
“It just didn’t feel like our day,” Hammell said. “We came up against an inspired goalkeeping performance from Craig (Gordon), which he does so often it’s no surprise.”
Joe Efford and substitute Rolando Aarons both suffered hamstring injuries in the first half and Ricki Lamie was taken off midway through the second half after struggling with a kick.
Hammell said: “We didn’t have our issues to look for, the three saves we allowed, we had to use them for injuries and we had to be careful who we put.
“The injuries don’t look good. It won’t be in a few days, it’s a couple of hamstrings and a knee injury.
“Callum Slattery has had some bad news in his family so it’s for personal reasons that we’ve left him out. He’s been wonderful for us this season and he’s been a huge loss for us but some things are more important.
Lawrence Shankland opened the scoring for Hearts after Lamie misjudged a high ball and then set up former Ayr teammate Alan Forrest five minutes into the second half.
Both players scored in Thursday’s Europa Conference League win over RFS in Latvia and Forrest capped off a successful week with a stoppage time goal.
Manager Robbie Neilson said: “Three goals scored at Ayr United. It was good to see the rapport between Shanks and Alan, they came and really took the group on, the players really like them and they are doing good for us .
“I like their journey of coming out of the Championship and doing well in the Premiership and then coming to us. It shows that this is a great path for players in Scotland.
Neilson allayed fears over a knock which saw Scotland keeper Gordon need treatment and wasn’t overly concerned about injuries which forced Alex Cochrane and Stephen Kingsley, while Cammy Devlin was fine after leaving immediately after being falls.
“All the injuries were contact injuries,” he said. “None of them were muscular.
“Craig will be fine for international duty. I think it would take a lot for Craig to miss this. It was just contact when he landed, he hurt his knee a bit.
“Stephen got a little kick in the knee, Cochrane got a hit in the hip.
“Cammy (Devlin) just likes a hit when he comes off. He bounces in there.
