Motherwell interim manager Craig Brown has overseen his side win consecutive games for the first time this season after securing all three points on Saturday with a  2-1 win over St Mirren. Striker John Sutton is full of praise for the former Scotland manager for instilling an attacking freedom and positive attitude in the squad. Sutton set up Jamie Murphy's 56th-minute opener and expertly finished off a counter-attack to ensure Motherwell ended the day three points better off. Words from owner John Boyle suggest that Brown and assistant Archie Knox will be handed control until the end of the season although nothing will be done on this side of things until the transfer window closes.  Well played the better football throughout on their much criticised pitch to claim their first home win since October. Sutton feels the approach of Brown and Knox is getting more from the players than previous manager Jim Gannon.

He said: "Since the new manager has come in, we have been a lot more attack-minded, which suits our players. The training is a lot better, we're working harder and more on technique, which I think is making us all better players. Tactically he has got to the highest level with Scotland and he is very aware of the strengths in the team and is not afraid to go forward and attack teams. I really enjoy playing under them. The biggest thing for me is the training. You want to feel sharp and that you're ready for a game on the Saturday. From my point of view, that's been the case. If they were to stay, I would be happy."

The three points saw Motherwell's place in the top six consolidated. They lost their place in the top half of the league briefly after a run of eight games without a win. In most of those games the second half was their undoing, losing half-time leads against Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee United and St Johnstone. But they have scored five goals without conceding in the second half of their two SPL games under Brown.

Sutton went on: "The training has been a lot more intense, but there has also been a positive mindset and the confidence they are sending us out there with. They believe that we have the players to go out there and beat teams. It's up to us to go out and do it rather than before when we were sitting in and waiting for free-kicks. We really believe that we can go out and take the game to teams and get the right results. We went through a spell when we were just chucking away leads. When we go a goal up now we are not sitting in, we are pushing on for the second and third goals. Once you get two or three up, it's a lot harder for teams to come back."

St Mirren boss Gus MacPherson had no complaints about the result and bemoaned his side's defending at the long free-kick that Sutton headed down for Murphy to score. But he was less than impressed with the Fir Park pitch, which has been badly affected since covers were employed to fight the recent freezing conditions. MacPherson said: "If you criticise it, it just looks like an excuse. But if that's what we're playing top-flight football on.... it's just a case of getting the ball from back to front and trying not to make mistakes."