Stuart Kettlewell sympathises with Derek Adams after former boss leaves Ross County role

Stuart Kettlewell sympathises with his former manager Derek Adams as he leaves his role as Ross County boss after just three months in the job.

The 48-year-old’s third spell at the Highlands club was brought to an end following a 5-0 defeat to Kettlewell’s Motherwell side midweek.

But he takes no joy in the fact that it ultimately cost Adams his job and admits that all managers know it could happen to any of them in such a fickle role.

Tuesday’s result came just two months after Ross County beat the Steelmen 3-0 at Dingwall in a game that the Motherwell manager calls his lowest point at the club.

After a poor run of form in the last couple of months of 2023 pressure was starting to build on Kettlewell as well.

But the Fir Park side seem to have turned the corner and now find themselves undefeated in their last six games, winning three and drawing three.

And speaking to the media on Thursday as he prepares to take on Greenock Morton in the last-16 of the Scottish Cup, Kettlewell said: “I don’t thrive off anyone losing their job, I genuinely don’t. And that’s no different in this situation.

“I was on the receiving end of a bad defeat in Dingwall as manager and the players were on the receiving end, and it was a bit of a motivation for us the other night, I’m not going to lie, because that was the lowest point for me at Motherwell, it really was.

“In terms of the performance and the result and everything else that goes with it. So on the basis you understand how people feel and having lost a job before you understand how people feel, so that’s always the way I look at it, it’s different situations and different circumstances surrounding every football club.

“It’s a different landscape from when I was the manager at that football club and from when I was a player playing under the likes of Derek, so I don’t know all the circumstances surrounding it.

“But I do know is that it is an extremely difficult job and therefore when somebody does lose one then amongst the other managers there is a general feeling that it can happen to any of us at any point and you understand how that looks and you can also understand how it feels.”

Motherwell travel to Cappielow on Friday on the first of this weekend’s Scottish Cup fifth-round ties as they look to secure a place in the quarter-finals.