Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson insists he is in no doubt that his side can fight their way out of Ladbrokes Premiership trouble if they play like they did against Hearts - despite leaving Tynecastle with no points.

The Steelmen lost a hard-fought game after defender Charles Dunne scored an unfortunate own goal in the 14th minute on his comeback from injury following two months out.

A 3-0 thrashing of Aberdeen and gutsy draw at home to Celtic last week sandwiched a toothless loss to Livingston prior to the Hearts match but Robinson insists there are plenty of positives to take from their trip to Edinburgh.

Robinson, whose team are six points clear of the relegation zone and travel to St Johnstone this weekend, said: “The hard thing to take is that it’s probably our best performance we’ve had at Tynecastle since I’ve been at the club.

“It’s about taking the performance levels; you can’t go from the performance levels against Celtic, at Hearts and against Aberdeen and then drop them to a Livingston performance - that can’t happen.

“Results usually take care of themselves on the day with a bit of luck but performances you’re in control of, how far you run, how much you compete and we did that.

“We passed the ball and we got it into areas to hurt Hearts and but didn’t have that final killer touch.

“It seems that our better performances have come against the better teams and now we have to make sure that level stays there.

“We want to finish on a positive before the winter break and I am starting to see signs of what we were last season.”