Motherwell midfielder Stephen Hughes cannot wait to step out at Pittodrie when the Lanarkshire side travel to Aberdeen on Wednesday.The Steelmen's last six matches have been on their much-criticised Fir Park pitch which is being shared with Gretna this season.

Saturday's home defeat to Hearts - thanks to a Stephen Craigan own goal after 10 minutes - was also played in a gale force wind which, allied to the patchwork, sodden surface, gave advocates of summer football more ammunition.

The silky skills of Hughes suffered more than most and he was substituted by manager Mark McGhee in the second half as the home side struggled in vain to draw level in the SPL game.

"I don't want to harp on about the pitch," said the former Rangers and Leicester player.

"It's just an easy excuse. It was the same for both teams and they adapted better.

"I don't know how many games in a row that we've played at home but it will be good to get an away game and play on a decent pitch.

"It suits our football and we like to get the ball down and pass it.

"We showed that early on in the season.

"But the other side is that in games like Saturday, we need to roll our sleeves up and get on with it."

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee, who showed admirable restraint when he refused to blame referee Craig Thomson for failing to stop the game when 'Well striker David Clarkson was down with a head knock seconds before they lost the goal, was equally keen to play on pastures new.

McGhee said: "Hughes missed the game against Inverness last midweek and we didn't want to force him for the whole game.

"He will be better for it on Wednesday at Aberdeen where hopefully we will be playing on a pitch where we can get back to passing the ball.

"You can't ask boys at the back to risk getting on the ball and passing it in to midfield where it bobbles and then the second touch is a header.

"It is impossible. You just have to hook it on and we are not best suited to that."

Scotland manager George Burley was in the stand watching the match with a view to naming his first squad for the friendly against Croatia at Hampden at the end of March.

Hearts' stand-in boss Stevie Frail, who admitted he had no idea if top scorer Andrius Velicka is on the verge of moving to Norwegian club Viking FK for a fee of £1million as has been reported, highlighted the fine form of skipper Christophe Berra.

He said: "George has a lot of good players to choose from and it's wrong for us to tell him who to pick.

"But I think Christophe is going about his business in the proper way and hopefully he is included in the squad.

"Along with keeper Steve Banks and the rest of the back four, I thought he was fantastic."

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