Stuart Kettlewell proud of Motherwell after beating St Mirren

Stuart Kettlewell was proud of Motherwell’s battling qualities after they dug deep to defeat St Mirren 2-1.

Lennon Miller’s double cancelled out Killian Phillips’ ninth-minute opener and swung an action-packed contest the way of the Steelmen.

There were red cards for Dan Casey and Scott Tanser in the second half, while Mark O’Hara would see his penalty brilliantly saved by Motherwell keeper Aston Oxborough.

Well boss Kettlewell said: “I’m immensely proud of the character, the personality and the battling qualities – I knew we would need that today.

“St Mirren make you defend your box and make you stand strong. I’m really happy with the players and the performance – but the application especially.”

For the second week in succession, Miller produced a man-of-the-match display for the Steelmen to help them to victory.

He rolled home from the spot to equalise and then added his second on the stroke of half-time – driving the ball past Ellery Balcombe after his initial effort was blocked.

The 18-year-old continues to draw plaudits from far and wide, something that comes as no surprise to his boss.

“I was disappointed he didn’t get his hat-trick, I said that to him when the referee blew the final whistle,” Kettlewell smiled.

“I thought he had a great chance, he makes a brilliant run into the box at 2-1.

“All kidding aside, the level of composure we spoke about last week, it just comes again – I don’t think anybody in Scottish football is surprised.

“He just handles his business like a guy that’s got 300-400 games under his belt – he’s been the difference for us today.”

Motherwell were reduced to 10 men two minutes after half-time, after Casey was adjudged to have handled on the line.

Kettlewell felt that the defender was unlucky to see red, but was keen to put more attention on the final result.

“I’ve seen an angle from behind the goal where it does look as if it comes off his stomach, inside his chest and then onto his arm,” he added.

“I’m not going to sit here and complain too much about it – the emotion is that we’ve won the game and naturally we always come away happy when that’s the case.”

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson felt his team should have got more following what he described as an “excellent” showing.

The Buddies had plenty of chances, though would find Oxborough in inspired form.

On the key decisions that went against his side, Robinson refused to be drawn on Tanser’s red card or Motherwell being awarded a first-half penalty.

“We should have scored a lot more goals, we had a lot of chances,” Robinson said.

“I thought our performance was excellent at times, especially when we had 11 men on the pitch.

“I can’t affect what the decisions are, if they affected the game then that’s out of my control.

“There’s a lot of positives, I thought our performance was very, very good.”