McInnes said: "It was so important to win tonight for loads of reasons. We were up against a good side and I've a real high regard for what Stephen [Robinson] has done with his team.

"We started well and got a fortuitous goal from Max Lowe. I don't think we've had a lot of luck but it's given us a great start, and while I think although we conceded a bit of possession, we counter-attacked well and I thought we were the most likely to score.

"I thought defensively we were strong and should have seen off the goal we conceded, but other than that I don't think Joe [Lewis] has had a lot to do.

"I thought we passed up a couple of good opportunities to get a second goal but it was great to see Greg Stewart and Niall McGinn combine for the second, and then the icing on the cake was Niall's goal at the end."

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson admitted there was a sense of disappointment that the defeat consigned his team to finish in the bottom six of the table, but praised his side's turnaround since Christmas.

"Relatively for this football club, we have to stay in this division," he said.

"To be in with a shout of the top six shows our form since the turn of the year.

"We're naturally disappointed but we have to go again and make sure we finish brightly so all the good work we've done since Christmas doesn't go to waste."

With first-choice goalkeeper Trevor Carson still recovering from deep vein thrombosis, the last thing Robinson would have wanted to see was Mark Gillespie being carried off in this game, but the early signs are it is not too serious an injury.

Robinson said: "Hopefully Mark's not too serious. He took a heavy collision, but we're hopeful it's just a dead leg.

"It limits your options with substitutions as we were ready to make three attacking subs, but in the second half, we could have put 10 men on and not scored.

"The players showed great character in the first half. We dominated large parts of the game in terms of possession and our goal was excellent.

"In the second half we went too long too early, and after the injury to Mark the game died a death.

"Our decision making wasn't quite what it has been and in the end, we probably got what we deserved."

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