“We have looked at the teams below us, of course,” said Hartley
“You want the gap to be as big as possible between yourselves and them.
“Now it’s 14 points — that’s a good lead for us.
“If you look at the league table, we’re just four points behind St Johnstone.
“We have to keep the kind of performance and result we produced on Saturday going if we are to challenge.”
The manager was happy to finally get a win after a run of eight league games without having done so.
Paul added: “Every team has difficult spells. The players have never let it get them down, they have continued to get their heads down and work hard.
“I’m pleased for the players because we have had a fair bit of criticism over the last few weeks and they showed we are a half-decent team. I’m delighted for them.”
“It was a really positive start. We said we wanted that from the players — we wanted them to take the game to Motherwell,” continued the boss.
“We scored some good goals but I was disappointed we didn’t score more.”