Kettlewell tells players 'to suck up criticism' after Scottish Cup exit

Stuart Kettlewell has told his Motherwell players "to suck up the criticism" after their Scottish Cup exit to St Johnstone.

The travelling Steelmen support let their frustration be heard at half-time and full-time as they watched their side muster up just one shot on target against the side bottom of the Scottish Premiership.

"I've said to the players that what you've done before, where you sit in the league, it doesn't matter, it comes down to today," Kettlewell said.

"Making excuses about us having nine players out, that you would make a case for them all maybe playing in our team, none of that matters, it's just excuses.

"How supporters react is going to be down to the score, sometimes the performance and then that's ultimately how it goes as a football player.

"You either suck that up and you realise that that's what it is and you react positively to it or you disappear and you go into your shell and that's not going to work out well for anybody.

"We speak about being 16 points clear of St Johnstone. It didn't look like that on the face of the performance but you try to remind the players that there's a reason why you find yourself in the top half of the table."