Stuart Kettlewell on the Motherwell changes that could be made after 'most ridiculous goals you'll see' v Hibs

Stuart Kettlewell has hinted at a back to basics approach after Motherwell lost 3-0 to Hibs in their latest Premiership game.

The hosts suffered an afternoon to forget and handed three cheap goals to a team desperate for victory to alleviate some pressure at the bottom of the league. Junior Hoilett opened scoring in the first half and it didn’t get any better from there.

Hibs piled on the misery for Motherwell but the goals were of the home team’s own making. After a goalkeeping error by Aston Oxborough for the first goal, Mykola Kukharevych pounced to net a second for Hibs after Motherwell failed to deal with a corner, then a long ball in the second half caused havoc and Josh Campbell eventually turned home.

Next up for Motherwell is Dundee at Dens Park on Wednesday night, having lost their last game to this 2-1 at Ross County. Speaking after the match, Kettlewell was angry at how the game panned out and insisted stripping things back may be an option. He explained: “Real anger in the level of performance. Real anger in every aspect of the game.

“I can’t make excuses, full ownership, rests with myself. Playing at home, it’s never been something we’ve found ourselves in the position of being three goals down, totally out the game and not having a real spark to instigate that thought process we might be getting back into a game of football.

“Lack of quality at the top end of the pitch. Lack of quality in the middle of the park and you concede the most ridiculous goals that you'll see. And that becomes a recipe for disaster in a game of football. It's as simple as that.

“Going into a game on Wednesday, that sole responsibility lies with me to correct that. Over the last two games, the five goals that we concede are amateurish, as far as I'm concerned. I have to put players into a position to make better decisions. Put them into a position where they have more confidence going into the forward areas. “And we all want to take the praise and everything.

“We had a good start to the season. We've had quite a lot of plaudits for where we've been sitting in the league table. And getting to a national semi-final, you absolutely have to take the criticism that comes your way off the back of that result and performance.”

He added: “The basic fundamentals for us have to absolutely be better. Defending a box for a set play. Us in possession of a throw-in for the first goal. Error from Aston, he's been terrific for us to this point but it's an error on the cross ball. Then the third one, a straight hoist up the park bouncing ball and we don't deal with it. It's the first part of defending your goal and ensuring that the opponent doesn't get an opportunity from it.

“I feel that we have to strip it back, if I feel that people don't understand what I'm after or what I'm looking for or what I expect. We talk about non-negotiables constantly when I'm at this club. If we don't have that, there's a couple of things you need to do. You have a twist and a tweak with your shape and your set-up.

“You have a twist and a tweak with your instructions and your personnel. So, that's never changed in the history of football. We have to go and make sure that I can try and come up with the correct solution which helps and aids the players to a far better performance for one on Wednesday.”

Kettlewell says the responsibility falls to him to find the team shortcomings. The Motherwell manager said: “I spoke about the naivety of the goals up in Dingwall last week. That rears its head again, but it's possibly the reaction to the goals that we concede. When you find yourself one down in such a fashion through an individual error, there's always a route back out the game. But that's where I say that I didn't feel that we passed the ball well enough.

“I didn't feel that we received the ball well enough. I didn't have the great enough willingness to get into the final third. Hibs, of course, certainly deserved their three points. I'm certainly not sitting here making any excuses for that.

“I have to identify where we're coming up short and show them that again. We felt we'd done that and had a good week's preparation towards this game. But you have to find other mechanisms to get better out of the players. Because I absolutely do believe that there's better than what we showed out there .We've showed it time and again since the start of the season. So I always talk about having showed something, having walked in the shoes.

“They've absolutely done that since the start of the season. So we need to go and try and find that mechanism to get a better performance, a better reaction to going behind. But can we even start being better than what we did on Saturday.”