Motherwell boss warns Premiership placing could be key to summer signings

Beating St Johnstone this afternoon increases Motherwell’s chances of a seventh-placed Premiership finish – and also might boost their summer transfer kitty.

The Steelmen currently sit two points off Livingston in seventh, and four ahead of their McDiarmid Park hosts, and boss Stuart Kettlewell says where they finish could be important, with an added financial reward after a difficult year.

But Kettlewell warns that they probably won’t be able to splash the cash.

He said: “I want to keep performing the way that we are just now, the players to keep acquitting themselves and acting upon a game plan, exactly how they are.

“I can’t sing their praises highly enough, but that doesn’t mean that we become really comfortable, lethargic and lazy, and too comfortable in our position.

“The opportunity that we have is that we can try and finish top of the bottom half, but listen, Livingston will be looking at that, St Johnstone will be looking on it as an opportunity for them to do that.

“I haven’t focused on what’s happening behind us, I’ve felt as if we could perform, take care of what we’re doing, and that it gives us a chance for that sort of goal.

“But I think it goes without saying that there are probably a few clubs in the mix to try and get that seventh position.

“I should add that it comes with prize money as well. I could be corrected on this, but I believe we could be talking in the region of £60,000-65,000 of a difference, depending on the placings you get in the league.

“I can tell you that’s really important for the club, it genuinely is, because as I sit just now, there’s not going to be a great deal of scope to make wholesale changes and bring more players in to the club.

“We obviously have had a very difficult