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Starting to get tedious Kettlewell has won two matches and its nothing to do with him? really oh Its that Hearts and St Mirren were crap what a joke some people on here want Pep Guardiola managing us and will never be happy otherwise. I'm sure they would have loved it if we had lost the last two matches then they could say i told you Kettlewell is crap should be nowhere near the first team. Lets get someone in who knows nothing about Motherwell other than its on the way to Glasgow has no idea what players we have has never seen us play oh and by the way you only have 12 games to save our season. By the way i said months ago that our next manager was in the door when he was appointed Kids coach. Yours S Kettlewell

Some amount of animation on here today! What do folk really think our options are? 1. Take a chance on a guy who has been out of work for 2 years, his last job was a disaster and knows nothing about our players or the Scottish game. 2. Take a chance on a guy with an ok record but with no knowledge of our players or the Scottish game. 3. Take a chance on a guy who got his team promoted from the championship, only to be relegated again the next season when his budget was cut and his co-manager moved upstairs. He also knows our players, knows all our opponents and has back to back wins against the 3rd and 4th teams in the league with a set of players who hadnt won a game since October. We have 12 games to go folks and the next 2 games could see us safe if we win both. We dont have time to be f#cking around bedding in a new manager, new tactics etc. I still wouldnt give Kettlewell the job beyond the end of the season, but give him guarantee its his if he keeps us up. But making any other decision right now comes with massive risk attached. I found this quite interesting.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64712164

Being old enough to remember Roger Hynd starting his tenure with 5 straight wins before it all went pear shaped, and of course SH picking up early wins, I well understand why we should be wary of appointing someone just on 2 results. But we need to look beyond that. How did he get the results from a demoralised bunch, and new players?, How did he approach the games tactically?, how was his ingame management?, how is his man management?, how well does he communicate? How much of a 'leader' is he?, how well does he know our opposition? Winning 2 games is no guarantee of future success, but he ticks all the boxes on the above questions. I would not hold Ross Co sacking against him, if he demonstrates what he learned from it and is ready to go again. Resiliance is a great thing to have, and tbf the other 'candidates' have more than one sacking, and right now are more of a risk. And if not him then who???

At risk of continuing to repeat myself, we did the same thing when Alexander left, we looked good under Hammell then quickly dropped off, I don't understand how people seem to have that short of a memory. You are right I didn't see us getting 6 points but if you think the St Mirren performance was "good" then I would hate to see what you think shite is, it was 2 crap teams with one being slightly less crap. The Hearts performance was a marked improvement and will give you that we did indeed look good, however that was also helped by the fact Hearts looked utter dug meat. Don't misunderstand me, if he gets the job and keeps us improving then I will be the first to hold my hands up and admit to being wrong, but I just dont see it. Everyone seems to be distracted by the shiny 6 unexpected points and quickly forgetting we have been through this already just a short while ago.

He is already on the wage bill so promoting him to manager will only involve a wage increase not a new guy on the wage bill. Then Clarkson will take Kettlewells job and he is also already on the pay role. Hopefully you understand what the cheap option is now.

First Shout I ever heard about Peter Millar "Haw Miller your playing like a lump of meat" to which a reply was shouted "Naw he's no you can cure meat"

Millar McVie McLaren That was some halfback line. Tough as nails.

Not sure if it's maybe just me but I can see a massive and obvious difference between the Hammel Bounce and the Kettlewell Bounce. Robinson/Alexander and then Hammel all persisted with a particular formation with a striker playing on the wing and midfielders doing things they weren't suited to, the more it didn't work, the more they stuck to it. Where are all the folks who went mental the last time a Hammy team sheet was read out with Sheilds on the right wing ? What Kettlewell did was look at the formation and change it completely. Extra defender in the middle to make a back three, Goss in the middle where he's more effective and Spittal/Cornelius pressing from the front and tracking back, trying to deliver the ball to one or two strikers in the final third rather than on the half way line or out wide. These changes have taken us to two wins in a row, one of them beating the clear 3rd best team in the league. So, it's not 'just two wins', it's a complete change to the way we line up and approach games. Neither of pre-sacking Robinson, Alexander or Hammel did that, with much more time to do it.

I agree that its not fair to compare the two but I am mostly doing it to point to the similarity of the squads attitude looking better then dropping. When looking at it I look at his pervious record and based on that alone I am not impressed. Genuinely quite shocked so many people are happy to look at someone that was sacked from Ross County for sticking them dead last in his first (and only) solo managerial job as being good enough for Motherwell. If it wasn't for the results in the 2 last games then his support for the job would be a lot less than it is now, and thats the way I am looking at it.

I see why we shouldn't get carried away, but Kettlewell isn't Hammell, so we shouldn't automatically expect the wheels to fall off either. Holloway should never have got near the job in the first place. One look at what went on with Grimsby tells you he's not the guy we need. As for McCann, he's had successful spells, but he also has 2 relegations on his CV, no managerial experience of the Scottish game and will have worked with a budget way above anything we can come up with. There's little chance he'd sign a short term deal, and if we did go down, would anyone want him hanging around? Kettlewell's a risk, but so is any appointment, and what choice do we have? 'We don't know' isnae an option.

Its madness to me that some on here see a guy that's only managerial record is getting sacked for being bottom of the league as the guy to get us through a relegation battle. Yes hes had two good results and I am happy to give him credit for it but lets not kid ourselves, both St Mirren and Hearts had off days, they just did. We took full advantage of that which is exactly what we needed to do and in the hearts game in particular we looked vastly improved and players clearly were on a bounce, but we have seen it all before, very recently. I would have no issue for him to move into a number 2 roll but I don't see him as the guy to lead us out of this. People will ask who else is the answer? I honestly dont know, I just know that I don't believe its Kettlewell.

So would you like it better if mccann, or Holloway had got the job and we ended up in the same position, two managers one of whom is a headcase, who dont know the players, or Scottish football, will bring in their own staff etc, that's risk and potential upheaval we don't need with 12 games left in a season and fighting to stay up. Giving the job to SK was a good risk,he's hit the ground running and seems to have the players with him, with no reorganisation of the club required. Then if it goes Pete Tong the club can have more time to recruit another manager in the summer. Personally I think SK will keep us up, and still be in charge next season.

Two good results and it looks like board are going to offer him the job. Wait until the end of the season. If he keeps us up then maybe. If he fails to keep us up then bye bye. Totally short sighted to give him the job based on two results.

That’s where I am.

Which new manager do you think we could hire where we wouldn't have to "hope it works"? Negotiating a contract for any manager will involve them asking for things and the club deciding if they accept. It's hardly holding a gun to anyone's head when the club has other options and can easily say no.

Stevie Hammell hit the ground running and had the players with him then he crashed and burned. So let's just hop on the same merry go round with Kettlewell and hope it works. Kettlewell has won two games in a row now he is the Messiah according to some people. Also why is Burrows interviewing him as reported in the press. Two wins and be thinks he can hold a gun to the clubs head and make all sorts of demands. Tell him to fuck off.

Would hate you to be my boss one failure and your finished, pack your bags do not pass go do not collect £200. Oh and by the way i have a long memory so you've got no chance to prove yourself again. There goes a man that's never made a mistake, there's a man that's never achieved anything

I disagree. We won at St Mirren first day but didn't play well at all. We then showed our glass jaw against St Johnstone. Then followed Pitoddrie, one of two good wins under Hammell. We huffed and puffed to a win against Livi before again showing weakness against Killie. We didn't look good under Hammell initially. He got two good wins, at Pitoddrie and Dingwall. Whether Kettlewell is the answer, I don't know. But can people stop making out that Hammell was getting a tune out of us due to some new manager bounce...

One could make the argument that Hammell's inexperience contributed to the squad becoming disinterested. Hammell looked genuinely rattled in some of his press conferences, and I wouldn't be surprised if that translated to being rattled when preparing the team. Aye, the recent results have certainly changed opinions on Kettlewell, but that's a fair enough reason, to be honest. If we can keep the intensity and fight up to the end of the season, that's all that matters at the moment. Another thing that's changed people's opinions is having someone that doesn't talk shite or look out of their depth. I can't deny Kettlewell's patter has been a welcome change in tone, especially considering how fucked things have felt for a while. I would have never gone for Kettlewell but compared to the other two options, and other names in the hat, I don't think it would be the worst outcome (for now). I would understand the reluctance if we were between seasons, but we are where we are. Perhaps, it's just the fear of Holloway blinding me....

I think the next two games will tell us if it’s different from SH or not.

I agree that Holloway should be nowhere near, despite having to continue to argue this point with my friends that keep insisting it would be a "great appointment". McCann I honestly don't know enough about but not having experience of the Scottish game doesn't rule someone out for me. There are only so many names out there that do without using up the usual suspects merry-go-round. I would generally be more inclined for SK to be a number 2 to a foreign entity to Scottish football on the short term and if we do go down then have another look at him as he has experience in winning the championship. I get that "we dont know" isnt an option but "I don't know" is as I have no idea of the list of names that applied outside of the shortlist.

I totally get that, but I think the difference is that Hammell had zero experience. The Kettlewell and Hammell comparisons are party due to both already being at the club, but it's not a fair comparison for the most part.

This is pretty much it, no matter what we do at this point is a gamble. As much as I give him credit for the wins I also put a * next to them, as we had the exact same reaction when Hammell first took over and then dropped off. As I said earlier at this point I don't have a preferred candidate, none of the short list fill me with confidence. If we were talking about the perfect world and looking more long term then I would like to see someone like David Martindale but I can't see us being able to lure him from Livi, we are not enough of a step up and probably a bit of a risk in comparison with how safe his job looks there at the moment but I have been impressed with what hes done with Livi.

If the 3 options kettlewells the best fit okay things went wrong at county but sometimes a manager gets things wrong at one club and improves on his next go around. He’s had two tough fixtures I said if we got 4 points last week it’d be a massive improvement but we got 6. Of the options in the running he’s the best of a limited selection to us. No matter who the manager is or how rest of this season goes the club needs an overhaul this summer in it’s playing squad and the whole board in my opinion have to answer some pretty tough questions

I think we would be crazy to offer a long term contract to someone that’s won two games of football, if he has a better offer elsewhere that’s fine by me. His record at Ross County in the Premiership while in sole charge was 29%. I think he needs to show he can make it at the top level before we start offering two or three year contracts.

Do you honestly think when Motherwell advertised for a new manager there would be a single candidate without ar least 2 or 3 failures on his CV, not a chance, good managers tend not to be unemployed so SK was no different to any of the others. For me if Ross, McCann and Holloway made the shortlist then I suspect the overall quality of the applicants was not the best, I've been a critic of the board recently but in ghis case I think they've made the right decision to suit the club, so fair play yo them.

Great post. It doesn't have to be extreme thunderdome football or silky expansive soccer; it can be a mix. However, long ball physical football is more likely to bring success to a club of our stature. Young home grown talent can provide the skill and experienced journeymen the solidity, in very broad terms. Occasionally we can unearth a talented gem from elsewhere but thats the exception. Does our fanbase want attractive open football or decent results?

So do we not then have to employ someone for Clarkson’s role? What about an assistant manager? Also, the money for these rolls are all budgeted for so no real increase in wages unless a new manager asks for more than SH was on.

I would be amazed if Kettlewell is not the next full time manager and sure he will be now once everything is agreed ,The likes of Holloway is too much of a gamble right now. Enjoyed that game yesterday , best I have enjoyed any game at Fir Park for at least 3 seasons I would say