Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson claimed his side should have had a penalty when leading in a 1-1 draw with Hearts.

Robinson's side had a four-against-one counter-attack as they led through Christopher Long's 21st-minute goal but it ended with Jermaine Hylton being foiled by Zdenek Zlamal.

Hylton appeared to stumble as he tried to reach a return pass that was drifting away from him but Robinson felt he was then taken out by the Hearts goalkeeper.

Conor Washington levelled four minutes after the break to cut Motherwell's lead in third place in the Ladbrokes Premiership to one point.

"You know it should have been a penalty," Robinson said when asked about the incident. "It's a two-footed tackle. Sometimes you get these things, sometimes you don't.

"If we've got the technology that other countries have, then perhaps that helps referees. He (Don Robertson) thought Jermaine was on the way down and he probably was but he's got caught fully and it's a penalty for me."

Washington missed two chances soon after his equaliser but Motherwell got back on top and came close on several occasions before Steven Naismith and Liam Boyce failed to convert stoppage-time chances for the hosts.

"In general we came with a game plan, we knew Hearts would press us quite high up the pitch, they would go quite direct and on the counter-attack I thought we had a lot of pace and energy," Robinson said. "Sometimes we made the wrong decision with the ball.

"But we created a lot of clear-cut chances. Liam Polworth had a great chance, Chris Long had a header in the box he probably should have scored. And I have to give credit to the goalkeeper, the save he made from Jermaine Hylton was world class.

"To come to Tynecastle with what they have got in terms of budgets and players and quality, and be slightly disappointed not to take all three points, maybe shows how far we have come."

Hearts fell three points adrift at the bottom after Hamilton leapfrogged St Mirren with a late winner against Kilmarnock but manager Daniel Stendel was content with the result after his team fought back from a poor goal.

Long rounded Zlamal and slotted home after charging down Craig Halkett's clearance.

"If Motherwell score because they have the quality and played well, OK, but when we give the the chance to score too easily, it's hard," Stendel said.

"But in the second half, Bobby (Zlamal) saved a great shot and Halkett also did well.

"Some situations are not good. At the moment, the first chance is sometimes a goal but what changed is our reaction.

"Our reaction was not to go 2-0 down or 3-0 down, our reaction was to keep our game, create chances and we scored.

"We were not playing a team from the bottom of the league. It was a good team and, for this reason, I think we can be satisfied with the result."