MOTHERWELL have proved they will not be bullied after a battling display against Hearts.

That was the view of Fir Park manager Mark McGhee who witnessed his team go toe-to-toe with the high-flying Jambos in an enthralling 2-2 draw at the weekend.

Under Ian Baraclough, the Steelmen were swept aside at Tynecastle earlier in the season, while against Ross County last weekend in Dingwall they were outplayed and outfought for most of the encounter.

It was a different story on Saturday as the Well raced into the lead after just two minutes while demonstrating a competitive edge for the rest of the match, both in and out of possession.

Their cause was undoubtedly helped by the return of experienced pros such as Keith Lasley, Stephen McManus and Stevie Hammell, but regardless, McGhee was delighted with what he saw across the board.

“Players like Lasley, Hammell and McManus can do that. I don’t think the young players can do that on their own,” he said.

“We do want that in the team. We want to be a team that are not intimidated, who can’t be bullied. Last week as much as we were outplayed by Ross County we were also beat up a little bit on the physical side.

“That certainly didn’t happen against Hearts. We knew we were going to have to stand our corner and we did. We need the experience in the team to be able to do that.”

That draw with Hearts stopped the rot of two defeats on the bounce turning into three for Motherwell.

More importantly for McGhee, though, it set the standard in terms of performance that he expects to see from his team going forward this season.

Consistency is something that has not been seen around Fir Park for a long time – you have to go back to March and April before you find a run of three back-to-back victories.

And now that a showing full of commitment, creativity and courage was on show at the weekend, the Motherwell manager is calling on his players to carry those characteristics into this Saturday’s trip to Firhill to play Partick Thistle.

“Last week’s result and this week’s is no more or less important. What we are looking for is to get the same level and quality of performance out of them next week,” said McGhee.

“You can do that and you can win games or lose games, but we have to find a consistency. If we do that we will win more games than we’ll lose.

“It’s that consistency I’m looking for to take into the Partick Thistle game. We have a benchmark now from what we should expect from them and from themselves.”