GRAHAM Alexander wore a smile last night after his shock troops restored their reputation by damaging a resurgent Aberdeen with a courageous display.

And two second-half strikes from Kevin van Veen took the eye as the Fir Park outfit put their woes behind them and delivered a battling ninety minutes to ruffle Reds’ feathers and take the points to hoist them up the cinch Premiership table.

But if the Dutch striker was the hero at one end of the pitch, goalkeeper Liam Kelly produced some stunning stops to give his team a clean sheet and compound Aberdeen’s problems.

Motherwell were still hurting following a humiliating 6-1 defeat to Rangers a week ago and knew they needed a special show to put that embarrassment behind them.

Van Veen, reunited in the summer with manager Alexander under whom he played at Northampton Town, was a constant bother to the home defence in an extremely physical battle in which eight yellow cards were shown by referee Don Robertson, five to the visitors.

“It was the complete opposite of last week,” Alexander said. “The players were absolutely magnificent; the way they've trained this week as a squad, how we've committed to it, has been superb to watch.

“We had to put it in practice today against and an excellent team on a great run of form. I couldn't be more proud of this group of players - more than any in my career. They were superb.”

Alexander revealed he had a conversation with van Heen on the eve of the game to inform him what was expected from his performances as a minimum.

“Not his maximum,” he said, “because I know his maximum can be anything. He is a super talent but his minimum has to be that I'll know what I'll get from him.

“When he pressed the ball, competed ... if we compete like that and be as disciplined as that, then we know we have players who can produce those sort of finishes.”

Alexander also spoke of a Christian Ramirez header late in the game as the Dons piled on the pressure that brought an astonishing stop from Kelly.

“I thought the ball was in the net,” he said. “It was a fantastic save. We can't say that we're surprised by it - we know what a fantastic goalkeeper he is.

“The standout moments were at both ends of the pitch, but every single player did exactly what was required for the team. No one let their team-mates down. Every player can go home knowing they did their jobs.”

Despite Aberdeen’s wins against Hibs and Hearts and a draw at Rangers in their previous three games, the hard truth is that they have managed just three wins in fourteen matches, a statistic manager Stephen Glass chose not to dwell on last night.

“In the first half we were okay,” he said. “We had a lot of threat and a decent number of opportunities that we should have done better with.

Second half, it was the exact opposite of the performance we had in the second half last week [against Hearts].

“As a result, we got what we deserved.”

He thought the opposition’s goals were the “softest you’re likely to see” but didn’t provoke a reaction he wanted.

“It’s a setback,” he admitted, “because we’re looking to build. We don’t want to step backwards at any point. You’ve got to kill games when you’re on top and we didn’t do that in the first half and we paid the price.

“It’s a setback because it’s three points we’ve left behind and Motherwell have jumped ahead of us with three points. “

The biting challenges that started as early as the first minute told the story of the tension surrounding this game.

A wonderful run from Marley Watkins, that started on his own 18-yard line saw him slip past a series of opposition players and ended his part in the move with a long, high and perfectly-placed diagonal pass to Dean Campbell. His volley would have opened the scoring but for the acrobatics of Kelly.

Then, the goalkeeper’s left leg came to the visitors’ rescue moments before the break to prevent Watkins from squeezing his shot in at the near post to bring an energetic first half to a close.

But it was the Lanarkshire side who were to deliver the opener, five minutes after the re-start with van Veen grabbing the first of his goals, as he directed a Sean Goss ball into the penalty area with the outside of his boot.

Seven minutes later, the Fir Park front man hit his second after a high ball into the Dons’ box was headed back across goal by Ricki Lamie for van Veen to bang home from close range and heap problems on the home side, unable to retaliate.