Lifelong Motherwell FC fan Stewart Hall couldn't turn down coach role with Women of Steel

Hall (25), has been in the role as an assistant to Eddie Wolecki Black since January, moving to North Lanarkshire after a five-year stint as head coach with Kilmarnock Ladies, where he had achieved promotion to SWPL2.

“My family are season ticket holders at Motherwell,” Stewart told the Times and Speaker. “I’ve supported them since I was eight or nine years old, when I started really following football.

“I’m a local boy, from Cleland. I played for Motherwell as a winger or a full-back in my youth years from under-14s to under-19s, although unfortunately I never made it to the first team.

“I played in the era when Craig Brown was the manager (of Motherwell men’s first team). Craig was an absolute gentleman, although he never had much involvement with myself being in youth teams.

“But he came down and took a couple of training sessions when he was the manager there and he was amazing, with an absolute wealth of knowledge. I wish I could have got more time to be coached underneath him as well.

“Unfortunately at the time when Craig left and Stuart McCall came in, I was swiftly moved on. But I can’t say anything bad about McCall. I never got the opportunity to be coached by him as well.

“It was just unfortunate that he came in with new ideas and a new way to do things, the opportunity to move up the way just became slightly harder and for me it was best to move to a new club at that point.”

Stewart joined Dumbarton in August 2011, spending a couple of years there before moving to junior football, serving Lesmahagow, Rutherglen Glencairn and Arthurlie.

He combined playing junior with his role as Kilmarnock Ladies gaffer, until his playing career ended last September when Stewart “smashed my ankle to pieces”, an injury which had to be operated on.

And his coaching remit switched to Motherwell following a phonecall from Wolecki Black on Boxing Day last year.

“Eddie asked if I would be open to speaking with him because previous to that I had been planning on staying with Kilmarnock this year,” Stewart said.

“But he explained that the opportunity was to come in and work full-time with him and the offer was just too good to say ‘no’ to, too convenient because I still lived close to Motherwell.”

The women’s Scottish football season usually runs from February to November, although as the enforced sabbatical during the current coronavirus crisis continues, one alternative proposal being discussed by the authorities is switching to an August to May campaign which mirrors their male counterparts.

The 2020 campaign had only been running for a month when it was stopped in March, with Motherwell – boasting 12 new players – having got off to a good start as they won their four-team League Cup group section ahead of Forfar Farmington, Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock to move into the quarter-finals.

The Women of Steel had also won 1-0 in their opening league game at Forfar Farmington thanks to a Jordan McLintock goal and were due to play Glasgow City in their second SWPL1 fixture when the season was pulled.

“There’s a fresh look to the squad with plenty of new ideas,” Stewart said. “And a new playing system as well.

“We were in a right good groove before lockdown happened.

“We weren’t saying we were going to win the league but we were quietly confident about having a really positive year and being in the top four rather than the bottom four this year.

“We were confident, although Celtic, Rangers and Glasgow City are going to be the dominant three this year.

“Hibs have had a bit of a changeover with managers and players but they’ll still have a good squad.

“Even the rest of the teams like Forfar – whose new manager has played in Northern Ireland and who has had a lot of players come over from there with him – are a big physical team and know how to play and get results.

“Hearts have had a lot of investment from the main club and have quite a few new players, they’re a strong team.”

Stewart revealed that he and the other coaches have kept in touch with all the players through lockdown.

He added: “They’ve had their fitness programmes to keep themselves going.

“We’ve had regular team Zoom calls and quizzes so the morale of the squad is really good and the bunch of girls to work with is really good.

“We are just waiting to hear if it’s a straight continuation of the season restarting whenever we can or whether it’s starting afresh.

“We’re following advice from the health professionals and the people that are above us. We’re just going to have to follow the advice that we’re given and the rules that will be set in place for when we return.

“We need to make sure that when we do return everybody’s safe, whether it’s a return to training first in a non contact way and then moving onto normal training and then into games after that.”