Motherwell 3 Dunfermline 1: match report Motherwell were denied an opening goal in the 15th minute due to an erroneous offside flag from assistant-referee James Bee. Ironically, Higdon was the player who had strayed behind the Pars defence but he was inactive when Jamie Murphy's chipped pass sent Nicky Law, who had timed his run perfectly, through on goalkeeper Iain Turner. The match officials became even less popular with the home fans three minutes later when the assistant on the far side, Ross Haswell, attracted referee Alan Muir's attention to an off-the-ball altercation between Motherwell captain Craigan and Dunfermline forward Andrew Barrowman. Consequently, a straight red card was shown to Craigan, who motioned his head towards his opponent, while Barrowman was cautioned: he limped off nine minutes later. Manager Stuart McCall, for his part, immediately withdrew Murphy and sent onTim Clancy to plug the hole in his rearguard. However, it was new signing Henrik Ojaama who broke the deadlock for 10-man "Well in the 28th minute. The Estonian Under-21 international, making his first start for the Lanarkshire club, displayed quick feet to bamboozle his marker before sending a well-struck shot from 18 yards across Turner and inside his left-hand post. Dunfermline have been plagued by goalkeeping gaffes this season and, while that goal didn't constitute the worst of them, Turner will have been unhappy with his contribution. The visitors also had a legitimate claim for a penalty kick rejected when Darren Randolph appeared to take the legs from Andy Dowie. However, they rarely played as though they had a numerical advantage and they fell further behind seven minutes after the restart when Ojaama held off two opponents before laying the ball into the path of Nicky Law and the midfielder's rising drive from 15 yards came into the unsaveable category. Substitute Andy Kirk pulled one back with an emphatic volley from Paddy Boyle's cross but Motherwell continued to look more dangerous on the counter-attack. They restored their two-goal cushion nine minutes from the end, aided by some sloppy Dunfermline defending. Randolph's free-kick was flicked on by Higdon and Chris Humphrey, introduced just five minutes earlier, stroked the ball behind Turner from 12 yards for only his second goal of the campaign. The travelling fans began to head forthe exits shortly afterwards and the post-mortems conducted on the journey back to Fife are unlikely to have been kind on the players who capitulated on Tuesday night. Motherwell (4-4-2): Randolph; Hateley, Hutchinson, Craigan, Hammell; Murphy (Clancy 19), Lasley, Jennings, Law (Humphrey 76); Ojaama (McHugh 71), Higdon. Subs: Bradley (g), Daley, Forbes, Carswell. Booked: Clancy, Ojaama, Higdon. Sent off: Craigan. Dunfermline (4-4-2): Turner; Dowie, Rutkiewicz, Keddie, Boyle; Graham, Kerr, Mason, Cardle (Willis 56); Barrowman (Kirk 26), Buchanan (Hardie 75). Subs: Smith (g), Potter,Thomson, Byrne. Booked: Barrowman. Referee: Alan Muir.