Motherwell have sold over 8000 tickets for Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden, and boss Stuart Kettlewell is dreaming of a return in the final to repay that backing.
The Steelmen go into battle against under-fire Philippe Clement’s side at the National Stadium on Sunday, 24 hours after Celtic tackle Aberdeen in the other semi-final at the same venue.
A packed Fir Park roared Motherwell to a 2-1 quarter-final victory over Dundee United in September, and there will be bus-loads of supporters leaving from the stadium tomorrow afternoon.
Having beat United 2-1 at Tannadice in midweek, Kettlewell hopes fans are eager to get to Hampden.
“I’m over the moon for the support that the local area has given us,” said Kettlewell.
“The quarter-final was a special night here for us, and hopefully we can try and give the supporters something back on Sunday. That’s what we’re looking towards.
“There’s not a great deal different from the football side of things – we want to try and have a group of players that are climbing the walls to play any game.
“Where the extra excitement comes is from the community and the area, getting to go to Hampden, and taking the big numbers that we’ve already sold – we’re up close to 8000 tickets sold for our allocation, which I think is unbelievable.”
Kettlewell added: “Every game is massive to us. We spoke on Wednesday about not even considering Sunday, to make sure that we got our focus right on that, and I think that’s the only reason we won the game.
“But when you’re doing well, and you’re picking up points and going on a run in the cup, you have to keep trying to chalk each one off, and try and prepare the way that we do.
“It’s a massive game, but the way you get there is by not cutting any corners and making sure you go through the measures that you always do for each game.”
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