Motherwell caretaker manager Stephen Frail admits the players owe themselves and the fans a performance – and hopes a committed display against Celtic starts to reconnect the club.
Frail will take charge of Sunday’s William Hill Premiership encounter in the wake of Stuart Kettlewell’s resignation.
Fans return to Fir Park for the first time since the January 5 win over Aberdeen when the league leaders visit for Sunday’s 3pm kick-off.
After three consecutive defeats on the road and a difficult week for fans, players and staff, Frail is looking to begin the process of rebuilding morale.
“Performances help,” he told the broadcast media. “I’ve been asked ‘do we owe the fans a performance?’ The players owe themselves a performance, first and foremost. But when you look at the St. Johnstone game two weeks ago in the cup, over 2,000 fans. Of course we owe them a performance.
“We’re not long out of Covid when you’re watching games with no fans. They’re the most important part of the club. They’re the life beat of the club. They’re the most constant thing in the club. And we want to go out and enjoy winning games for ourselves, for the club, but also for the fans. And there’ll be an element of that, that we need to try and get that connectivity back by putting on a performance.
“If we lose the game, as long as fans see that the players are trying everything that they possibly can, then I’m sure that connectivity will be there. Because we’ve got a fan base who want the players to do well every week.”
The club detailed the circumstances around Kettlewell’s departure earlier in the week.
“We’re just concentrating now on trying to get that positivity back into the team and performances,” Frail said. “When you look at it, it was a very small minority. We’ve got a really strong fan base, it’s a community-led club.
“I spoke earlier in the week about a game we lost last season. We lost 1-0 to St Mirren and we were excellent on the day. I can still see the players walking around the pitch getting a standing ovation. So you don’t get that from a bad fan base. We’ve got a good fan base.
“It was one or two of the elements that have taken that a little bit too far. It shouldn’t be accepted in any walk of society, but unfortunately Stuart’s made that decision for the welfare of himself and also his family.
“We need to try and get this connectivity back, everyone to try and connect the club and make sure that we’re ready going forward for this game on Sunday and for the rest of the season.”
The former Hearts manager explained how much results mean to the staff and the players.
“We don’t go out to lose games,” he said. “We don’t go out to play poorly. We don’t sit as a staff after a game and say, ‘that was okay’. We go over it, we analyse it to strive to be better for the football club.
“And it helps we’ve got everyone behind us. As I say, nine times out of 10, they usually are. You see them getting standing ovations. It seems to be a good thing in football now, players take an ovation after every win. And our fans are brilliant when they do that.”