Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell praises side's 'resilience' after Rangers defeat

Stuart Kettlewell has praised his side’s resilience in dealing with a number of injuries ahead of their 2-1 defeat against Rangers at Hampden Park.

Motherwell were without eight top-team players heading into their showdown at the National Stadium, and saw striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos limp off before half-time to add to their woes.

Kettlewell hinted that he will need to shuffle his pack ahead of a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final against Kilmarnock on Sunday, because this group is what he has to work with.

He said: “The word I’m using to the players is ‘resilience’. We’ve had to show that not just for this week but since the start of pre-season with what we’ve had to endure and the disruptions.

“Every team has that, I’ve probably not seen it to this level, but it’s never going to be an excuse for me – we’ve got young players, academy graduates, to utilise these guys, and if senior players are out they might get a place on the bench, they might get a chance to start in the team, but that has been immensely difficult over this week.

“What we need is resilience from the rest of the group. We are what we are, it’s not going to change between now and Sunday, so we have to make sure we wrap them in cotton wool and that we’re in the best place possible to acquit ourselves well in the cup game.”

Kettlewell felt his side gave Rangers too much respect in the first half as they raced into a 2-1 lead in 24 minutes that ultimately earned them all three points.

He said: “I thought we were a wee bit stand-offish in the first half.

“I felt we gave up far too much ground, we were probably showing Rangers a bit too much respect.

“Without changing anything ridiculously, tactically, in the second half, I felt we started to become a bit