Motherwell are ending the season in fine style and can justify their status as favourites for Wednesday’s trip to Livingston in the Scottish Premiership.
Stuart Kettlewell has overseen a remarkable transformation at Motherwell since stepping up to take the first-team reins in February and is urging his team to finish the campaign in fine style.
The Steelmen are clearly buying into their manager’s words too, stringing together three straight wins to climb to seventh in the standings, an impressive turnaround given they were joint-bottom when Kettlewell took over.
The Well confirmed their Scottish Premiership status some time ago, as did their midweek opponents Livingston, and although there’s little riding on the clash at the Tony Macaroni Arena, the visitor’s record against Livi and recent strong showings means they hold appeal for the encounter.
Football Bet of the Day – Wednesday 24th May
- Motherwell to win @ 6/4
Date: Wednesday 24 May, 2023
Time: 19:45
Location: Tony Macaroni Arena, Almondvale
These two met at the start of April when Motherwell strolled to a 3-0 victory at Fir Park, extending their recent run of success against Livingston.
The Well have lost just one of their last 14 games against Livi, avoiding defeat on their last four visits to Almondvale.
They should be confident of building on that good recent record, despite Livingston having not always been the easiest place to visit this season.
Livi have the best home record amongst the Premiership’s relegation group and head into Wednesday’s game fresh from a 2-1 home success against Dundee United.
However, that result came after a run of three straight defeats without scoring for Davie Martindale’s side, while a look further back in the form guide shows they’ve lost five of their last seven games.
All is not well off the pitch at Livingston too with fans upset at the announcement by skipper Nicky Devlin that he’ll be joining Aberdeen at the end of the season.
Livingston look ready for the season to be over, but the same can’t be said for Motherwell, who have shown their class since the Premiership split.
Three successive wins, all to nil, since the split have carried on the good work they were doing before the Steelmen dropped into the relegation group with Kettlewell’s men having lost just twice since his appointment in February.
The new Fir Park boss has had to deal with a few injury issues too, but there’s still plenty of quality in the squad. Blair Spittal has caught the eye with his recent performances and has played an important role in helping striker Kevin van Veen score in nine straight league outings.
The Dutchman’s winner in last weekend’s 1-0 victory over Ross County means he’s now one goal shy of equalling Mark Viduka’s record of scoring in 10 straight Scottish Premiership matches.
Kettlewell is certainly getting the most out of his players at a stage of the season where they could easily switch off after a long campaign that started for Motherwell in July with Europa Conference League qualifiers.
But Motherwell seem intent on building a head of steam going into next season and can continue on their way with a victory at Livingston.
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