Stuart Kettlewell believes Motherwell should be aiming to be best of the rest

Stuart Kettlewell insists Motherwell must now target a seventh-place finish after their faint hopes of a top-six finish were extinguished in the 1-1 draw with Hibernian.

Heading into the Fir Park showdown, Motherwell needed to win and for Dundee to lose their last two games to finish in the top half, but Tony Docherty’s men secured their place in the top six by drawing with Aberdeen.

The Steelman battled well amidst windy conditions, but they fell behind in the 64th minute through Myzaine Molida’s penalty after Stephen O’Donnell fouled Will Fish.

Motherwell looked down and out but they equalised through a thunderous finish from Shane Blaney in the last minute of stoppage time before Oli Shaw missed a glorious chance to win the game from three yards out with virtually the last kick of the game.

It has been a rollercoaster season for Motherwell, but Kettlewell issued a blunt warning to his players that they cannot drop their standards in the five post-split fixtures.

Asked if seventh place was now the target, Kettlewell answered strongly: “Absolutely. We went on a brilliant run last year and had a bit of a charge at the top six with an unbelievable run of form.

“I remember this day last year and all the talk was about being the best of the rest.

“It’s a challenge because there’s teams like Hibs and Aberdeen with their resources. I won’t be accepting anybody coming in with an attitude that they can take it easy.

“We need to kick-on and I can assure you that we will be all guns blazing. We will give everything to give everything for this football club.”

Hibernian were one point ahead of Dundee in sixth place before conceding the late equaliser and their fans made their feelings known at full-time.

The Hibs players were met with fury as they approached their away end and under-pressure manager Nick Montgomery understood their frustrations.

“I understand the fans, for sure,” he admitted. “It’s been a frustrating season. The start of the season was really difficult, I came in, we’ve had some good periods, some tough periods.

“We’ve had a lot of challenges this season – and the fans don’t deserve some of the stuff that’s happened to them this season. I thought they were great today, they got behind us. And with 20 seconds to go, if we hold out, there would have been fantastic scenes at the end.

“So of course, a game you should win, you drop points and it costs us a point in the top six, I can totally understand their frustration.”