Liam Kelly accepted blame for St Johnstone goal howler, says Motherwell boss

Liam Kelly held his hands up for the blunder that gave St Johnstone the lead at Fir Park this afternoon, and boss Stuart Kettlewell says that’s the mark of the man.

Goalkeeper Kelly came out for Matt Smith’s curling free-kick, missed it, and it deflected off Bevis Mugabi and ended up in the back of the net in 53 minutes.

It looked like Saints would take full points back to Perth, but Mika Biereth popped up with a leveller in stoppage time, meeting Theo Bair’s excellent cross with a bullet header into the left corner of the net.

The sense of relief around the stadium was palpable, but it sill has the Steelmen on a run of 13 Premiership games with out a win, and Kettlewell knows they must stop conceding those types of goals.

He said: “Liam Kelly’s the first guy to come into the dressing room after it, as our captain, as a guy with a wealth of experience and who has been excellent for this club over a period of time,and there’s nobody more disappointed than him.

“He made the wrong call, he made the wrong choice in a situation that we probably knew we had under control.

“But I probably need to caveat that by saying sometimes goalkeepers stand on their line and don’t want to make a mistake, sometimes they stand and don’t become pro-active to help their back line.

“He’s such an honest guy that he’s maybe been a wee bit of a victim of his honesty.

“He wants to come off his line, he wants to come into areas where he can help his team-mates.#

“That was the wrong choice today. He knows it, I know it, everybody watching the game knows it, but I’ve seen goalkeepers stand there, hope for the best and not come out and bail their mate out.

“I think that’s what he tried to do in that moment.”

Kettlewell added: “You saw on show what the issue is,