Hearts make it four home wins in a row thanks to "fantastic" Rebecca McAllister

Hearts assistant manager Sean Burt believes his team is making Oriam a fortress after a fourth straight home win in SWPL1.

In a close affair at the Oriam, the home side edged out Motherwell 1-0 thanks to Rebecca McAllister’s stunning strike in the 11th minute on a day when Edinburgh rivals Spartans and Hibs both dropped points.

Controlling the ball on the volley, the midfielder, signed on a permanent deal in summer after spending part of last season on loan at Hearts from Celtic, guided her effort into the top right corner of the net in spectacular fashion. “Beck’s goal is fantastic technically”, Burt told the Edinburgh Evening News. “She is a very technically gifted footballer. We’re seen it many a time in training and we were just hoping one of them would pop up in the match, and she deserves it because she has worked really hard in training.”

It was a fourth victory in a row at Oriam for Hearts in the league and Burt hopes his team can start to use their home ground to their advantage. “I think what we want to do is give teams the feeling that they don't want to come here,” he added. “We want to use this big pitch as a bit of a weapon and to our strength as well. We take it game by game and that’s what we want to do, we can't ever get too far ahead of ourselves. Take it 90 minutes by 90 minutes.

"It’s three points and I think that's a huge positive for the girls. They have done exceptionally well to get it over the line. I thought in the first half we were in complete control. We had clear cut opportunities and we were really unlucky not to go into the break two or three up.

"When that's the case you always give the opposition a little bit of hope and you could see that in the second half, with Motherwell really stepping up their tempo. Credit to them, they carved out a couple of opportunities and still looked a real threat. But the girls dug in and showed a different side to their game, the second half especially. Thankfully, we have got three points.”

In a first half of few chances, Hearts started the better and got themselves in front early. The hosts went close again in the 25th minute when Emma Brownlie’s header from a corner hit the top of the crossbar.

Hearts hit the woodwork again in the second half when a Georgia Timms effort came back off the inside of the post only for the ball to bounce out. Motherwell pushed hard in the dying embers of the game and almost got an equaliser when Lauren Doran-Barr hit the post. However, the hosts held on to tighten their grip on fourth place in the table.

Rebeccas McAllister scored a stunning goal on the volley to earn Hearts a 1-0 win over Motherwell. Picture: HMFC

Elsewhere, Spartans and Hibs both dropped points. Spartans led through Sarah Clelland at Ainslie Park, only for Hamilton to fight back and win 2-1. Hibs also dropped points in a disappointing 0-0 draw with Patrick Thistle at Meadowbank.

Hearts travel to Hamilton in their next league game on Sunday, November 6, at 4pm. Hibs travel to Glasgow City and Spartans welcome Rangers in the SWPL Cup semi-final.