Stuart Kettlewell says Rangers booking and time-wasting tells its own story in win over Motherwell - 'we genuinely believed'
The Fir Park outfit came very close to taking a point from Govan, with Blair Spittal twice having shots cleared off the line in the last ten minutes, while Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland was forced to make a good save from Oli Shaw. Kettlewell admitted frustration to not taking at least a point from the match and says the fact Rangers had a player booked for slowing the game down was evidence of Motherwell’s threat.
"I don't think I'll need to convince too many people that that was the case [that Motherwell deserved more],” said Kettlewell. “I've been involved in a lot of teams that have played here but I can't remember too many when we've been dominant in stages of games, when you're carving out chances, pinning Rangers in. When you look at Rangers towards the end of the game – and this isn't a criticism, I don't want people taking it that way – but when their player gets booked for wasting time and they are trying to take the ball into the corner, I've not really seen that much here. That speaks volumes for our performance.
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Hide AdWhen asked if his overriding emotion was frustration or pride, Kettlewell responded: "Frustration, because I keep talking about never being a glorious loser. We've come here and played well, so there is frustration, but I can look at every one of the players and realise what they gave me. I can acknowledge what we're trying to become and what we're trying to be as a football club, understanding what our goals are. I'm a genuinely believer that you'll get what you deserve and I think performances like that against the rest of the league, nine times of ten, will result in points - probably three. All credit has to go to the players because I thought they were exceptional today.”
Kettlewell believes his team is in good shape despite their second defeat on the spin and dropping to fourth in the Premiership. They welcome Celtic to Fir Park on Saturday and the manager added: "We never came here for a point today, I can honestly tell you that. We genuinely believed all week we can win the game. That's no disrespect to Rangers because I believe they are a very good team and I believe they are a massive football club. We don't have any right to challenge them in this type of game in the sense of disparity in any number of things. But we believe we can win and the players didn't take much convincing. I watched them during the week and the talk is how to deal with their quality but also how we can show what we can do.”