Motherwell boss happy as keeper kept quiet in cup win

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell says his side’s win over Edinburgh City ‘ticked all the boxes’ but keeper Krisztian Hegyi didn’t have a save to make.

Goals from Kofi Balmer, Dan Casey and Stephen O’Donnell gave the Steelmen a comfortable win in their Premier Sports Cup Group G opener.

But while Kettlewell says his keeper was idle for the 90 minutes when making his competitive debut, he was pleased that his stars entertained the 2587 Fir Park crowd.

He said: “The first point is you want to win, the second thing is you want a clean sheet and then you want to pitch in with a few goals and hope everyone comes through unscathed, particularly at this time of year.

“It looks as if we’ve ticked all of those boxes. Everyone can see we were in complete control and our goalie didn’t need to touch the ball with his gloves.

“Give Edinburgh credit, they were very organised and came with a good game plan.

“I was trying to drive the standards to the last part of the game because when supporters come, stroking it about at the back doesn’t entertain me.

“It was about getting that message to go and get in a position where you catch people’s attention and show you’re a good player.”

New signing Balmer got off the mark, having sent a drive inches wide and hit the post with a header.

Kettlewell said: “Kofi is one we were delighted to get and gives us another option, pitched in with his goal.

“He has this ridiculously long throw which is something I don’t want to play but what we could use.

“He looked assured, comfortable out of possession and is growing with his communication.

“Something we had to do was get more clean sheets. We were the third top scorers but we want to improve that record in the backline and that’s why there