Chats with Liam Kelly and manager Stuart Kettlewell sold Andy Halliday on Motherwell move

Andy Halliday has revealed that Motherwell goalkeeper Liam Kelly helped sell him on a move to Fir Park by singing the praises of the team spirit within the squad.

The 32-year-old who completed his move from Hearts last week was also convinced that North Lanarkshire would be his next destination after a half-hour phone call from Stuart Kettlewell detailing how he would fit in to the team and playing style.

Halliday, who has also played for Rangers, Livingston, Bradford City and Middlesbrough, has known Kelly since they were at Ibrox together.

Speaking to the media on Thursday the midfielder said: “I’m delighted to get the deal done and focus on the season ahead.

“It always helps when you know a couple of faces, it’s a great changing room here and that’s something that got sold to me before I signed.

“Obviously I know Liam Kelly is someone I have known for a long time and I spoke to him about it beforehand and he told me what a good group of boys there is here and now I’ve seen that first hand.

“It helps with there being a lot of Glasgow boys as well and boys I have known over the last few years, it’s a great group, it’s only been a few days but I’ve settled in pretty quickly.

“It was going to be something I planned to deliberate over a couple of days but like I said speaking to Liam Kelly over the phone sold it to me a little bit, he spoke really highly of the dressing room and the team.

“Watching Motherwell from afar this year, I think they looked a really good footballing side with some really good players.

“Then speaking to the manager on the phone, our first phone-call was something like 25-30 minutes and he spoke really well, told me how he sees the team playing and how I will fit in to that and I came away from that call with a really good feeling that this would be a good fit for me and my mind was made up pretty quickly.”