Kai Andrews vs Lennon Miller face-off that sold Motherwell boss on Coventry midfielder

Kai Andrews caught Stuart Kettlewell’s eye when he went head-to-head in a midfield battle with Motherwell skipper Lennon Miller for Wales U19s. Now the Well boss is looking forward to the day he can pair the teen duo shoulder-to-shoulder in the Steelmen’s engine room after completing a loan swoop for the Coventry ace.

Andrews became the first January arrival at Fir Park on Tuesday but the 18-year-old will have to wait to team up with Miller who is out injured with a fractured ankle.

Kettlewell reckons Well’s record of helping develop young loanees from down south including Mika Biereth, Brodie Spencer, Jack Vale and Georgie Gent played a big part in convincing the Sky Blues man to make the move to Lanarkshire. And he is confident he will have the same impact after watching him star for the young Dragons in a 1-0 win over Scotland at Forthbank back in November.

He said: “I would pitch Kai as an all-round midfield player. Good energy, good strength, good mobility and handles the ball well. I watched him against Scotland for Wales U19s. He really impressed me. I watched him against Lennon Miller and thought it was a really good contest between the two of them.

“Sometimes when you know the other player so well then it can catch your eye. You do a lot of homework, these ones excite me because of the age and the lack of experience. That maybe puts a lot of people off but the way my mind works I go the other way.

“We have been able to pick off a lot of really good first loans in recent years. We have so many good examples of how that works as long as you have faith in the player and continue to coach and develop them.

“Just throwing them into an environment and expecting them to be a player, it’s often not going to work for