Motherwell have no divine right to progress, so it's important to win group, says boss

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell says his side has no divine right to win their Viaplay Cup group as a Premiership team, so it’s important to go through as winners.

The Steelmen will do exactly that if they beat East Five at Fir Park this afternoon, which will see them as one of the seeded teams in Sunday’s last-16 draw.

And Kettlewell isn’t taking anything for granted against Greig McDonald’s League Two side, who currently sit a point behind in second place after three games.

Kettlewell said: “We all think in theory that you’re just going to turn up, win four games as a Premiership side and just saunter through into the latter stages of this competition, but it’s not that easy.

“It’s trying to get a balance. It’s important for me to bleed in some of the younger players and how some of the talent we have here.

“All the while you’re working towards getting some guys who maybe haven’t had a full pre-season game-time to get them up to speed.

“I think that’s the secret to a wee bit of success in this group, to see if you can put all of these facets and elements together to try and get yourself at the top of the group.

“But we have no divine right as the Premiership club just to win the group, and I think there are a number of clubs that will try to trip us up.”

Kettlewell added: “I watched East Fife on Tuesday [against Queen of the South, 0-0 draw but winning 5-3 on penalties]# so by no means will it be an easy game.

“They made things really difficult for Queen of the South, I thought they grew in confidence in the second half, so we got a pretty decent indication of what they are, and we knew quite a lot of the personnel anyway.

“It doesn’t change the task for us, we know we have to try and win the game, but every game