Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell 'might have to coach players differently' after Vale sending off

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell has admitted he might have to start coaching players differently after Jack Vale’s sending off against Aberdeen.

The Welsh forward, who is on loan from Blackburn Rovers, was shown a red card during the Fir Park side’s 1-0 defeat at Pittodrie on Saturday.

Kettlewell insists the incident can be viewed in different ways but says the fact the opposition player was running at full pace towards Vale meant there was nothing much he could do.

He also spoke out against VAR and how wrong decisions could have the been the difference between clubs reaching their ambitions for the season or not.

On Wednesday an independent review into VAR judged that there were ten incorrect decisions between the first weekend of February and April 13, bringing the season’s total to 23.

Speaking on Thursday, Kettlewell said: “Obviously we, and everyone else in Scottish football all want that number to be zero, but I think that is very unrealistic, however I think ten calls deemed incorrect from February is probably the accurate summation of what’s gone on in recent times.

“And when it comes to the business end of the season that can have a huge bearing, it can have a massive effect on clubs, outcomes, league positions, staying in the top six, getting into Europe and all these different things so that is concerning.

“It depends on what lens you are looking at it through, would argue that it could potentially be more than 26, some might say that it could be less.”

Motherwell host bottom side Livingston this weekend after lodging an appeal against Vale’s sending off and Kettlewell also used an incident involving Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland against St Mirren as a defence of his position on that.

He said: “We obviously lodged an appeal regarding Jack Vale’s sending off on Saturday and several of us are going to see this incident in a different way.

“The point I am trying to make is that when you have a player intercepting the ball, and hooking it over his shoulder, I’m going to have to think about coaching my players in a different way, I thought Jack done fantastically well to read the flight of the ball, follow it over his shoulder and hook the clearance over but at that point when the Aberdeen player is running full steam into you then there’s going to be contact.

“Sometimes, as a consequence of playing football, I myself have held my hands up and said I’m going to get hurt and there’s going to be collisions out on that pitch.

“I think there has to be an understanding of the pace the opposition player is running at, I looked at the Jack Butland one, against Olusanya, and on the side still of that one, there must be six or seven yards of a difference of space between the goalkeeper and the player who is running and slips and collides with Butland, so we can’t referee games based on someone getting hurt, yes there was a collision in the end but the goalkeeper is there miles before the attacking player.

“I feel that Jack Vale got there long before Jack McKenzie and you have to take into consideration the pace the other player is running at.

“So we’ve lodged an appeal, everyone viewing that is seeing it in a different light but my appeal to everyone in Scottish football is have a look at the opposition player and the speed he is running at, if you are running at that pace towards another player then there is every chance you are going to make contact and there will be some sort of collision, but every contact and every collision isn’t a foul and isn’t a red card.”