Hearts and Motherwell both missed out on the Scottish Premiership top six after a poor goalless draw at Fir Park.

Both teams came into the game with aspirations of a top-half finish and Hearts knew victory would guarantee them the final place.

However, the pressure led to a game starved of chances, with Hearts substitute Lawrence Shankland coming closest to breaking the deadlock towards the end with an effort that was cleared off the line.

"It's a hugely disappointing day, we didn't do enough to win the game," said Hearts head coach Neil Critchley.

"Under normal circumstances, a point and a clean sheet away from home isn't that bad but today it's not what we came here for."

The first half was high on effort but low on quality, the best opportunity falling to Sander Kartum who from 15 yards curled over after Kofi Balmer was caught in possession.

At the other end, Callum Slattery's low drive from a free-kick was deflected wide, then the resulting corner ended up at Tony Watt who could not direct his effort on target.

Critchley brought on Cammy Devlin and striker Shankland at half-time, but Hearts remained sorely lacking in end product.

Shankland had a header saved before he blazed over from just inside the box with 20 minutes to play.

Hearts began take control and Shankland's effort was cleared off the line and Jorge Grant thrashed the follow-up over.

Michael Wimmer's side had a great opportunity to win it late on, but Dan Casey headed over from a corner.

There was time for one more huge chance for Shankland, but he dragged his shot wide when clean through.

Casey should have scored late on, but in reality Motherwell toiled for most of the game and lacked creativity.

Their eyes are now on the bottom six and avoiding the relegation play-off place as they head into the split with just two wins in 12 games.

It looks set to be an almighty battle with only six points separating Dundee in second bottom and Hearts in seventh.

The new manager bounce Motherwell enjoyed when Wimmer first came in seems a distant memory now.

The absence of Shankland was the big talking point pre-match and Hearts struggled to create much without him.

The striker's introduction at the interval livened up the away aside, but their striking woes were laid bare when Critchley was forced to send on Craig Halkett as an emergency forward with their top-six chances slipping away.

Critchley should be commended for turning Hearts' season around after a dreadful start to the season. But just one more point from their final three pre-split matches would have secured top-six football and they really should have managed that.

Like Motherwell, their thoughts will now be on securing their Premiership status for next term.

Motherwell manager Michael Wimmer: "I'm a little bit disappointed, the guys in the dressing room were disappointed.

"In the last 10 minutes I knew it was 3-2 to St Mirren so at that point I was okay to get the point because it could be important [later in the season]."

Hearts head coach Neil Critchley: "The first half was cagey from both teams. We were too slow with the ball and made too many mistakes.

"We changed at half-time and played more simple football, created some good chances but didn't take them. That's probably the story of not just today but a few other performances where you could point to us being wasteful in front of goal."