Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell admits he needs to bring in a goalkeeper ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie at St Johnstone, in a situation that’s “not perfect”.
First-choice Aston Oxborough is out for up to three months with a dislocated thumb, understudy Krisztian Hegyi has been recalled from his loan by West Ham after a lack of game-time, and Matty Connelly – who is on loan at Lowland League leaders East Kilbride – is cup-tied.
Archie Mair is on loan from Norwich City until the end of this season, and made his debut in the 3-1 defeat at Hibs on Saturday, but Kettlewell needs a substitute.
He said: “It’s not perfect. Losing Krisztian last week, we’re really disappointed in how that came about, and the feedback that we’ve had from Aston.
“I’m delighted to get Archie in. I’m delighted with his mentality as well, because even at that point we weren’t 100 per cent sure how long Aston would be out for, or even whether he would have been out last weekend.
“Archie jumped in with both feet, he was desperate to get up here, to put himself in this environment and get an opportunity to play at this level.
“In terms of his goalkeeping, I said after the game that he didn’t make a single save in the game against Hibs, and we lost three goals.
“He’s going to have days where he will have to make stops and be more active in the game, but I’ve been delighted with him so far.
“It becomes pretty evident that we need to try and get another in. Matty Connelly sat on the bench for us, he’s cup-tied this weekend, he’s played for East Kilbride.
“We’ve been big in trying to develop Matty as well; I’m desperate for him to continue playing games and not sit on a bench.
“So we’re actively trying really hard to try and improve that department.”
Motherwell’s injury situation has been well-documented, and Kettlewell revealed earlier today that he’s missing up to nine first-team stars for the visit to McDiarmid Park, but there’s not a lot they can do about it.
He said: “A lot of clubs have a lot of injuries but when you look at it since the start of the season, to where we are now, I’ve not really seen it as bad.
“The frustration is that when you do see that wee bit of light at the end of the tunnel, when you think you’re getting one or two back, two or three go back out.
“What we’re not sustaining is just a week injury or a 14-day rest, recovery and they’ll be OK – it’s significant injuries.
“There will be questions asked of myself and the club with that number of injuries, I understand that.
“But I have to go over the point that we’re very meticulous in what we do, the numbers the players put out there every week, what they do before they go into sessions, the post-session workout, the recovery that we do.
“We spend so much time on it and I trust the people here on that. If we had one specific type of injury there will be an answer for it, but they’ve been all different shapes and sizes, different grades, in terms of the tears. Impact injuries, bone injuries, so many different things that it’s incredibly difficult to put your finger on it.
“But the one thing that we all have to do is remain positive.”