Source: Team_Talk
Well boss grateful for Knox rant
Jamie Murphy glanced home Tom Hateley's 69th-minute free-kick at Fir Park to seal a narrow home win move Motherwell 12 points clear of the SPL bottom six.Motherwell controlled much of the first half without cutting Kilmarnock open often, although Cammy Bell saved well from Murphy, who scored the only goal against Hibernian seven days earlier.Brown believes their training sessions at Toryglen indoor football centre near Hampden throughout the harsh winter have helped his players maintain an edge over 90 minutes to keep their nine-match unbeaten SPL run going.And Knox was also on hand to fire the players up for the second period.Brown said: "We weren't at our best but, although I'm probably a bit biased, I think we just shaded it."One or two players were a bit short of their best. They know that and my colleague has told them that."He is a bit more forceful in some of the expletives that were required at half-time."We have been a very good second-half team. Our best performances are in the second half - they are anxious to please and they are fit."Brown, whose team have now kept eight clean sheets in 2010, added: "When you go a goal up the other team throws everything at you, they were playing four up front, but we had the best chance on the counter attack."Jamie Murphy was through again, I was giving him a it of stick for missing but he said his boot came off."He could have had a hat-trick, he was through one on one in the first half."Kilmarnock boss Jimmy Calderwood agreed that Motherwell just edged the play but the visitors were unimpressed with the free-kick that led to Murphy's goal.Giles Coke appeared to have lost control of the ball before Iain Brines penalised James Fowler for a challenge from behind just outside the box."I thought Motherwell started much stronger," said Calderwood, whose team suffered their first defeat in eight games."Again we started sloppy, they were causing problems with their movement. We were lucky to go in at half-time all square."The second half we were a bit better, and I thought the goal wasn't a free-kick. The boys were saying it wasn't a foul."We had too many people in the wall, there was a bit of disorganisation and they got the break."We had to go for it and we started playing but we couldn't get the break and probably didn't deserve it."