LIAM Kelly has lost count of the number of managers he has played under at Rangers, Livingston, Queens Park Rangers and Motherwell throughout his professional football career.
But the Scotland goalkeeper is in no doubt whatsoever about who the best coach he has worked with in the past eight years is - Stuart Kettlewell.
Kettlewell is under intense pressure at Fir Park following a 15 game winless run which has left his side languishing in second bottom spot in the cinch Premiership and facing a battle to remain in the top flight in the second half of the 2023/24 campaign.
Kelly, though, has revealed the Motherwell players are all determined to record a long overdue victory against Aberdeen at Pittodrie today and then climb the table to repay the man who kept them up in the division last season.
He can still recall how the former Queen’s Park, Clyde and Ross County player turned them into one of the best teams in the country after being appointed in February and is confident they can rediscover that sort of form it they start to execute his game plan to the letter.
“The dressing room’s probably stronger than I’ve ever known here,” he said. “It’s a really good dressing room, no egos, the boys are all together. A big factor in that is because the manager’s been so good for a long period of time before the run we’re on.
“That gives you proof that we’ve got a top manager and brilliant staff. So there’s good security for the players in that. We absolutely know that we need to try and pick up results. But the belief’s still there.
“We gave away two stupid goals in the defeat against Rangers on Sunday, which is completely outwith the manager’s control. It’s down to the players making bad decisions. But, in terms of us as a group and the feeling, the belief is there because the proof has been there.
“We’ve delivered for a long time before we went on this run. I know it’s been going on for a while now. But we’ve got full belief and full trust in what’s going on. From February right through until August we showed how good we were. We were sitting second in the table in terms of points accumulated.
“But now we’re not doing well does that mean everyone who was brilliant is now horrendous? No, it doesn’t. It just means we need to get back to what we were good at doing. We need to return to the basics.”
“One thing we all know in that changing room, and we are all together, is we will not get a better manager. We’re so behind the gaffer. That’s why we can still see everybody keep playing to the last minute of every single week for him.
“We know how good he is because he’s delivered for us. We wouldn’t have been playing against Rangers at the weekend if he hadn’t come in last year. We are aware of that.
“It’s about repaying the faith he showed in a lot of us by being better in moments of games. He can’t control that, it’s down to us and we need to be a lot better.
“We were better in the second half against Rangers because we did what the manager wanted us to do in the first half. At half-time the message was just reaffirmed from the one given before the game. We started doing it and so it gave us a better chance. But he can’t control certain things that happen on the pitch.”
Kelly, who made his debut for his country in the friendly international against France in Lille back in October, feels he has been as much to blame for Motherwell’s disappointing spell as any player and knows everyone in the squad has to step up.
“I think everybody who has played against us feels we’re a right good team,” he said. “It’s about eradicating individual errors and I’ve made some myself.
“You make your own luck a bit, don’t you? When you get chances to score you need to show quality in the moment. You need to have a nice cool head, you need to put the ball away.”
