Stuart Kettlewell 'perplexed' over Rangers celebration narrative as he comes out swinging for Andy Halliday

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Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell slammed criticism of Andy Halliday's refusal to celebrate his goal against Rangers at Hampden as he arrived at his media conference armed with stats that showed the midfielder's commitment to the cause.

Boyhood blue Halliday held his hands up in apology towards the light blue legions after he drew first blood against his old club in the Premier Sports Cup semi final, only for Philippe Clement's men to hit back twice and book a final showdown with Celtic.

But Kettlewell, preparing to face St Johnstone in the Premiership this weekend, hit back, saying: “For anybody that questions Andy Halliday’s commitment, I have to laugh at it, to be honest. To make that run inside the box, to get on the end of that cross... if Andy Halliday didn’t care about this club and take his job seriously, and wasn’t concerned about Motherwell and what we can achieve, then quite simply he would be standing outside the 18-yard box.

“I understand people will always question celebrations, but he’s 33-years-old and he covered 12-and-a-half kilometres in the game. If you think he’s not committed to get to that number at 33, then I have to laugh at that.

“The last point probably on it is we had a situation here some weeks ago in the quarter-final when Louis Moult scored one of the goals of the season, to my mind. An absolute piece of brilliance against us, an equalising goal.

“From what I’m led to believe, and I don’t look at social media, but there was a lot of respect shown for his reaction, because he appreciated the club that he had done so well for.

"I start to become a wee bit perplexed as to why that narrative starts to change. Andy served Rangers very well, it’s well documented that he’s been a Rangers supporter growing up, and all the rest of it. But he is fully committed to this club. I think all he was doing was showing a little bit of respect towards Rangers. I certainly don’t question his commitment towards this club. I haven’t for one second since he has been here, and I didn’t when he was trying to get on the end of that cross.”

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