Steven Lawless scored a stoppage-time winner as Partick Thistle beat Motherwell 1-0 at Firhill in the Scottish Premiership.

The result keeps Thistle on course for a top-six finish, although they survived a scare deep in stoppage-time as a disappointing match sprung to life.

Partick started brightly and came close to opening the scoring on five minutes when Lawless fired a shot narrowly wide.

Three minutes later, Danny Seaborne rose to meet a corner in a congested penalty box but the defender sent his header straight at Motherwell goalkeeper Connor Ripley.

Motherwell created the first chance after the interval when Scott McDonald broke to the edge of the penalty area and Stephen Pearson arrived to crack a shot which was deflected wide by Seaborne from 15 yards.

The match appeared to be heading for stalemate when Lawless crashed a volley past Ripley from 16 yards, which took a slight deflection on the way.

But Motherwell were denied an equaliser when Gary Fraser cleared a Stephen McManus header off the line at the death.