Stuart Kettlewell has accused Premiership chiefs of putting his players at risk with a hectic schedule of seven games in 22 days, which ends at Hibs this afternoon.
And the Fir Park boss doesn’t understand why their clash at Kilmarnock was slotted in to an already congested fixture list this month.
The sides scrapped out a 0-0 draw, with the original clash postponed on November 2, due to Motherwell’s involvement in the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals.
But since December 20 Motherwell have drawn 1-1 at home to Killie, lost 4-0 at Celtic, drew 2-2 with Rangers, lost 1-0 at Hearts, beat Aberdeen 2-0 and drawn 0-0 at Kilmarnock, with a trip to Easter Road just three days later.
Kettlewell said: “It’s arguably the most difficult a fixture as you could draw at the end of what has been a marathon for us.
“{Kilmarnock] was our extra game on a lot of clubs in the division and I don’t understand it.
“We potentially could have looked at that one to be played at a different time, I didn’t think we had to squeeze that one in amongst all of this.
“We’ve had plenty of muscle injuries, plenty of situations when we were looking at players and believing they were a bit fatigued.
“I thought we looked that [at Kilmarnock], a little bit tired and our reflexes and reactions were a wee bit slow.
“Now the focus for me is to get to 5pm against Hibs on Saturday, with the best performance that we possibly can, trying to see if we can get ourselves a result, and then I need to give the players a couple of days.
“I’m not huge on days off and that type of thing, but they’ve ran a race to this point, they really have.
“We’re at the stage where we’re majorly risking injury.
“I think we’ve potentially played a game or two extra on some of the English clubs who have far greater resources than us, and far bigger squads that can probably absorb that type of fixtures calendar.”
Kettlewell expect a tough game against a Hibs side that has hit a bit of form and is unbeaten in their last six games, having endured a slow start to their campaign.
However, Kettlewell never believed the Edinburgh giants were where they were supposed to be, as they battled at the bottom end of the table.
He said: “We’ve actually played Hibs a couple of times, and going into both those games we felt they were a good side.
“I think they were on the wrong end of a couple of late goals, one or two mistakes that they were punished for, and I’ve always felt since the start of the season that Hibs were a good side, with a good squad.
“I think they have good options across their squad, they’re a big squad, they invest well in their squad, and they have good players, so I expect a really difficult challenge.”
While Kettlewell wasn’t pleased with a 0-0 draw at Kilmarnock on Wednesday night, which he watched from the stands while serving a suspension, he said there were positives.
“My eyes from the stands at Kilmarnock told me we were well below standards, but we did show a resilience, a togetherness,” he said.
“We relied on some really good goalkeeping, on a world-class last-ditch block from Dan Casey to get out of there with a clean sheet and a point.
“I understand what we can do better, and that will certainly be pitched across to the players, but we gained a point in a game that we probably should have lost.
“I think we’re 10 points better off than we were at this stage last season, we’re three points off third position, it’s back-to-back clean sheets – there are a number of positive aspects.
“But I always feel that there’s much more to give, and much more quality that we can show.”