This is an excerpt from this week's Claret and Amber Alert, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
FIRST of all, I’d like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year when it comes. Despite the continuing woes of your team, I hope you’re all managing to enjoy the festive season more than the football one so far.
I also hope that any of you who set off for Aberdeen on Wednesday managed to make it back home safely, and weren’t too much out of pocket for your troubles.
While it is obviously difficult to put together a fixture list to please everybody, it isn’t the first time that Motherwell fans have had the stinky end of the stick at this time of year and been asked to travel long distances – Dingwall springs to mind - just after Christmas.
Anyway, the right call was probably made in the end to postpone the game, and while the team had a bit of a nightmare experience during their own aborted travel plans, hopefully the physical rest will have done them good ahead of the biggest match of the campaign to date on Saturday.
Because despite the best efforts of manager Stuart Kettlewell to downplay its significance at today’s press call, that is exactly what it is.
It is understandable that the manager would seek to minimise the do-or-die nature of the Livingston game. On a personal level, painting it as a must win encounter on the back of a 15-match winless streak would obviously leave him in a difficult – if not untenable - position come Saturday evening should his team not triumph.
If they lose the game, that may be the situation he finds himself in regardless. A couple of weeks back, I wrote in this newsletter that the Livi match would be Motherwell’s D-day. Even then, it was clear that the outcome could have seismic repercussions for the season and for the club, and there has been little that has happened between then and now to change my mind.
Since, there has been a goalless draw at St Mirren and the rather regulation defeat to Rangers. I feared that Motherwell would go into the Livi game having yet to break their winless run, and that is indeed, unfortunately, the case.
Judging by the mood of the fans around me as I had the privilege of parting with 33 quid to watch the game on Christmas Eve, even a draw might prove to be the tipping point for their patience. Increasingly though - and the recent flux in the boardroom has only added to this notion - I feel that anything but a real thumping would see Kettlewell maintain his position.
The club will be - and playing devil’s advocate, arguably should be - reluctant to part with him. He seems a good man, is a good coach, and the players themselves have repeatedly said they love working with him.
It is time then for those same players to stand up and be counted and show just how desperate they are for Kettlewell to remain their boss. Because while there have been late levellers along the way on this wretched run, showing that a degree of fight remains within them, a lack of concentration and individual errors are proving incredibly costly.
Ultimately, the buck stops with the manager of course, but assuming responsibility for what happens on the field on Saturday has to start with the men who cross the white line. Too many of them have been underperforming, and they cannot afford to only start playing when they are trailing when Livi come calling.
Make no mistake, while Davie Martindale’s men have been floundering of late too, they will be well up for this one.
It has been said by some that a little of the fire Martindale is renowned for has diminished this season, but in contrast to Kettlewell (publicly at least), I am certain he will be stressing to his players just how pivotal this game could be.
Lose it, and they will be cut adrift, falling seven points behind Motherwell at the foot of the table. Win it, and they will be just one point behind, and right in the fight to remain in the division.
Rather like Motherwell, they have been well in games recently, being a little unlucky to lose at Aberdeen and passing up several golden opportunities to win against St Johnstone on Wednesday night.
So, it will be no gimme despite Livi failing to win – and scoring only two goals in 11 matches - since their last victory in early October. Which came against *checks notes* Motherwell. Ah.
Despite losing that last game between the sides though, the omens remain good for the Steelmen. Incredibly, Livingston haven’t won at Fir Park since 2002, when Khaled Kemas (remember him?) hit the ‘Well’s consolation in a 5-1 drubbing.
If that record remains standing on Saturday evening, so too will Kettlewell as Motherwell manager, and hopes of pulling clear of the relegation mire will be given a significant and overdue boost if his team can win.
If not, well, it hardly bears thinking about.
