Hearts 3-1 Motherwell: Late Lawrence Shankland and Pierre Landry Kabore goals seal vital win in Scottish Premiership title race
Match report as Hearts maintain their three-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a win over Motherwell; Emmanuel Longelo gave the visitors the lead; Claudio Braga equalised, before Lawrence Shankland's penalty put Hearts in front; Pierre Landry Kabore scored the third
Saturday 11 April 2026 19:09, UK
Hearts came from behind to beat Motherwell 3-1 on Saturday, maintaining their three-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
After a goalless first half in which both goalkeepers had saves to make, the pressure was on Hearts to find the breakthrough with Celtic 1-0 up against St Mirren.
Their task was made even harder as Motherwell - who matched the league leaders for much of the game - took the lead five minutes into the second half. It was a good break after winning the ball back in midfield, before Emmanuel Longelo turned home Tawanda Maswanhise's cross.
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But the Hearts comeback began in the 61st minute as Claudio Braga equalised. It came from a corner, which was nodded down at the back post by Stuart Findlay. The Portuguese forward was then there to scoop the ball over his head and past the goalkeeper.
There was a question of offside as the ball bounced through a packed box, but VAR deemed it to be onside and the goal stood.
VAR was involved again 20 minutes later as Hearts were awarded a penalty. Stephen Welsh caught Pierre Landry Kabore in the head with his toes as the ball bounced around the area, with the home players arms going up for a spot kick.
The referee did not give it, but VAR sent him over to the monitor. He eventually gave the penalty, which Shankland sent home fiercely via the post to see Hearts ahead.
The game was wrapped up in six minutes of added time. It was a great spot from Beni Baningime to find the run of Kabore. He stood up well against his defender before eventually slotting past Calum Ward and sealing an important three points.
Hearts remain top of the Scottish Premiership by three points over Celtic in second. Rangers are third, four points behind the leaders, but can cut the gap on them when they face Falkirk on Sunday, live on Sky Sports.
What the managers said
Hearts manager Derek McInnes: "There's no two ways about it - we were under the cosh. But I still felt quite calm in the sense I thought we would score. We very rarely don't score, particularly here at Tynecastle.
"Thankfully Braga comes up with a big moment. The reaction of the players is magnificent. It's exactly what you want. Nobody's settling for a draw. To be fair, neither were Motherwell.
"I thought it was a very good game. There was a lot of drama, none more so than the penalty-kick. I haven't seen it again but what I've been told, even a couple of the Motherwell lads have said to me, he's kicked him in the head. So it's a penalty. Very rarely you get kicked in the head and it's not a penalty.
"But we take advantage of it, Lawrence, great temperament, tucks it away brilliantly.
"Motherwell are not an easy team to play against. They're not an easy team to score three goals against. We've managed to do it twice now but we've had to dig deep to do that.
"They are a team that test your organisation. Fifty per cent of my starting 11 have not been playing and it was always a worry for me because you need energy, you need fitness, you need that sharpness to deal with Motherwell.
"It says so much about them that they found something just to drag themselves off the canvas again and get the win."
Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou: "It's a shame for the game that it gets decided like that [with the penalty]. You can argue every time there's contact that there's a foul. Then it's about the amount of contact, the speed of contact, the situation."
"But what I want to underline again is that I'm really, really proud of our performance.
"We took control of a very difficult game against a very good team who are really, really good at what they do, who have an atmosphere that really drives them and can get you emotionally unstable if you're not there. We dealt with that extremely well.
"Some of the play we set up in the second half, leading to our chances, also the goal, was absolutely outstanding."
