There are certain things that are unacceptable in professional football. Spitting at an opponent, as Scotland skipper Scott Brown outlined in his own inimitable style after a Malta player gobbed at him last week, for one.

And the accusation that should offend a pro above all else is that they didn’t give it their all on a Saturday. And yet, as Gordon Greer methodically and surgically filleted his Kilmarnock teammates for a lack of effort after their supine surrender to Motherwell, there wasn’t anyone in blue and white on the day who could argue with his assessment.

Quite simply, given their current predicament, the showing they put up as they went one point from a possible 15 at Fir Park was a long way short of acceptable.

Manager Lee McCulloch set Kilmarnock up to frustrate a home side who were looking to record their third win on the spin at Fir Park, but as soon as Motherwell got the opener 25 minutes from time through Ryan Bowman, there was never any danger of a point escaping down the road to Ayrshire.

The response was meek, and the only surprise really was that it took until the last couple of minutes for Louis Moult to double Motherwell’s lead from the penalty spot after Iain Wilson had fouled Bowman in the area.

Greer, who was forced off with a groin injury at half-time, had the dubious pleasure of a grandstand view to witness his colleagues go down with a whimper, and to say he was forthright in his views on what he saw would be quite the understatement.

“The second half wasn’t a great watch from the sidelines,” said Greer.

“We need to do better. There’s no excuses from us. It’s down to the players that we have lost that game.

“We didn’t work hard enough. It’s very sad for me to sit here and say (that). That’s the minimum requirement from us. That we work hard. And we never worked hard enough. So, we’ve lost the game. Credit to them. They worked harder and deserved the win.

“That’s how I feel right now. We’re all going to make mistakes and we can play rubbish in some games. But as a team and a collective unit, not just the players who played the game, everybody behind the scenes, we never worked hard enough today and got what we deserved.

“You can’t get outworked in this league. You need to work harder than the opposition, or at least match their workrate. That’s the bare minimum.

“Today was the first time that I felt we deserved to lose the game, and it was down to a lack of workrate.

“We were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves today and we never put as much effort in, which is absolutely shocking.”

A damning indictment indeed. And in truth, Motherwell thoroughly deserved their victory after a first half that we’re probably best to simply consign to Room 101. It was dire stuff, with the visitors camped in so deep they were almost in Wishaw.

Ironically, Kilmarnock did create a couple of early opportunities on the break, the best of which fell to Eamonn Brophy after some good set-up play from former Fir Parker Dom Thomas, but his low effort at the back post was saved well by Trevor Carson.

The second half was much better, and when Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson introduced the craft of Gael Bigirimana to add to the impressive industry of youngster Allan Campbell in the home midfield, the Steelmen made the all-important breakthrough and never looked back.

One thing you could never accuse this Motherwell side of is a lack of effort, and their industry and greater will to win was justly rewarded.

Striker Bowman, who now has two goals at home in two weeks after waiting over a year to find the net at Fir Park, is hoping that he can persuade his partner Moult to stick around long enough to allow their burgeoning partnership to flourish.

"He's going to have to start giving me some of his goal bonus because I am setting him up all the time,” Bowman joked.

"Louis is the penalty taker and as much as I wanted to take it and we have both got our goals and the three points.

"There is a good partnership developing with Louis as we did not get much of a chance last season. We have played together a few times this season and it seems to work and we have got each other goals. We work well together.

"We did very well to keep Louis in the transfer window as we knew we would get offers for him with his goals and his all-round performances. We were delighted to keep him and I am just glad that we kept the partnership going.

"Louis has been offered a new contract with Motherwell and I think he'll sign it. Everybody is pestering him to sign and I think he'll crumble soon.”

MOTHERWELL: Carson; Tait, Kipre, Hartley (Grimshaw, 75’), Dunne (Hammell, 45’); Cadden, Campbell, McHugh, Rose (Bigirimana, 58’); Bowman, Moult.

Scorers: Bowman (65’), Moult (88’)

Booked: Kipre (24’), Grimshaw (83’) Hammell (91’),

KILMARNOCK: MacDonald; O’Donnell, Greer (Broadfoot,45’), Findlay, Taylor; Burke (Jones, 52’), Thomas, Wilson, Smith; Brophy (Frizzell, 71’), Erwin.

Booked: Wilson (88’)