Stuart Kettlewell rips into Motherwell players after Thistle draw as Stamatelopoulos transfer update sent

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell says Apostolos Stamatelopoulos is no silver bullet after a Premier Sports Cup stalemate with Championship side Partick Thistle.

The Steelmen will play Kilmarnock at home in the last 16 of the competition, after a point was enough in their final group match. But the performance levels in the 0-0 draw and subsequent bonus point penalty shootout loss angered the manager, who was irked by his side’s performance levels.

Australian international Stamatelopoulos was in the stands at the game as he goes through his medical process, with a deal agreed to bring him in from Newcastle Jets. Kettlewell says he doesn’t act as redeemer for a poor day at the office, as he insists he’ll take time to get up to speed.

The boss said: “He's obviously been here today but he's going through this medical process, part of it today, part of it tomorrow, and we would hope to to box that off. But I need stress that then doesn't become the the dramatic saviour to what was a really poor performance.

“We think it's someone that can add goals to your team, that can give us that focal point top end of the pitch, but every single other aspect to your team will need to be better for him to go and try and perform. He's a bit behind. He's played an All Star game, and he's been training for a couple of weeks over in Australia.

“His wife has just had a baby there on Tuesday, which has sort of interrupted the flow that a lot happening in his life, but he's at a reasonable stage. Physically it will still take some more work to make sure that we're getting him up to full speed to play 90 minutes in the game. “

Kettlewell fumed that Motherwell can expect to get beat by the likes of Ross County in next weekend’s Premiership opener if they play like they did versus Championship opposition. He vented: “It was an awful performance.

“Results always for my mind, can be more often than not are a reflection of your performance. I'm certainly not looking to take anything away from Partick Thistle, but probably up there with as annoyed as I've been with a performance that we’ve had and we’ve lost games and you know we've we've found ourselves second best at times, but I just felt it was a performance that lacked any courage, lacked any energy.

“I felt it lacked any commitment to the plan and how want to try and play. What we've identified all week to try and get to playing out here on Sunday to make sure we're going try and entertain the supporters. You know, I could kid people on and start to say that we created a few chances, their goalkeeper has made a couple of saves, we've hit the woodwork and we're through in the cup. I could kid people on and say that, but I'd be kidding myself on.

“The performance was nowhere near what's required to try and compete in the league that we're just about to start in six days time and if we play like that against anybody, doesn't matter if it's Ross County next week or any side of the Old Firm, whatever it might be.

“Any team in this league if we perform like that we will come away with no points whatsoever and we'll come away putting ourselves under a little bit of pressure as we have done today by, you know, at this stage I think it's a great opportunity to try and get the buy in from the supporters. The game is on television. You can go and show people you're a good player. Go and show people you're a good team, but I don't think we've hit any of those milestones today at all.”

Kettlewell wants to add an extra attacking dimension to his Motherwell team. But admits the fundamentals need to be in place first, adding: “We'll never achieve anything in the game if we don't press from the front end of the pitch, so that was a lot of my frustration. Again, individuals involved will will know who they are. They certainly do now.

“But if we don't show any energy from that front end of the park, we're never going to turn the ball over and try and create some sort of counter-attack. If we don't move well enough when we're in possession of the ball, if we don't try and drag our opponents in areas that we speak about every single day, if we don't look after the ball when it's played into those areas, then that attack just starts to come back on to your back line again.

“I'm going into the simple aspects of running more, of changing pace in the game, all fundamentals that we should be way beyond at this point. And I think that gives you a start and that gives you a chance in a game of football which we never had today.

“Each time it went into a forward area, we lost possession of the ball, we're caught behind the defender, we never had a spike to go in behind them. So therefore for your defenders and your midfield players, what you're looking at is giving you absolutely nothing in front and you don't have a trust to then play the ball forward.

“That knock-on effect is us stroking the ball about across the back and playing into midfield players without any real focal point and any real target to to go and attack the opposition. And I think it was epitomised by our penalty kicks as well. It was symptomatic of what we were today, the lack of quality in penalties gives you that negative feeling at the end. Would have felt better if we won the penalties? Of course it does, but I still would be talking the same way about the performance.”