Hearts caretaker boss Stephen Frail admits Motherwell's fine form gives his own team only the slightest chance of finishing third in the SPL.Frail stressed it will be "extremely difficult" for Hearts to rise from their current ninth place in the tightly-packed SPL to overtake Mark McGhee's soaring side who are heading for a place in the UEFA Cup.

But while it remains a possibility, Frail is not giving up hope.

Motherwell's next game, following Wednesday night's 3-1 win over Inverness, will be the SPL home game against Hearts on Saturday - a game Frail knows his players can scarcely afford to lose.

The short-term priority for Hearts, who saw their three-match SPL winning run ended by Celtic last weekend, is to secure a top-six finish before the league splits after 33 rounds of games.

They are currently five points behind fifth-placed Hibernian and sixth-placed Falkirk, so defeat at Fir Park to a team already 14 points clear of Hearts would be a huge blow.

Frail saw Motherwell's victory and told Hearts' official website: "The result obviously pushed them three points further away from us in third place so it is going to be extremely difficult to claw them back.

"We will not give up, though, and can do ourselves a big favour with a good result on Saturday.

"Our first priority is finishing in the top six and it's vital we achieve that aim so we want a good result this weekend. After that we will see what happens."

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