Rangers goal reaction 'doesn't mean Andy Halliday isn't committed to Motherwell'

Stuart Kettlewell has blasted critics of Andy Halliday’s non-celebration against Rangers, and insists he’s fully committed to Motherwell.

Midfielder Halliday opened the scoring in Sunday’s 2-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final defeat to his old club at Hampden, but opted out of a celebration, holding his hands up in almost an apology to Rangers fans.

That raised some eyebrows and drew criticism from pundits and supporters.

But Kettlewell has no problem with it, and compared it to when Louis Moult scored a scorching equaliser against Motherwell in the Tangerines’ 2-1 quarter-final defeat to his old club.

Kettlewell said: “For anybody that questions Andy Halliday’s commitment, I have to laugh at it, to be honest.

“To make that run inside the box, to get on the end of that cross... if Andy Halliday didn’t care about this club and take his job seriously, and wasn’t concerned about Motherwell and what we can achieve, then quite simply he would be standing outside the 18-yard box.

“That’s how I look at it.

“I understand people will always question celebrations, but he’s 33 years old and he covered 12-and-a-half kilometres in the game.

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“If you think he’s not committed to get to that number at 33, then I have to laugh at that.”

Kettlewell added: “The last point probably on it is we had a situation here some weeks ago in the quarter-final when Louis Moult scored one of the goals of the season, to my mind. An absolute piece of brilliance against us, an equalising goal.

“From what I’m led to believe, and I don’t look at social media, but there was a lot of respect shown for his reaction, because he appreciated the club that he had done so well for.

“I start to become a wee bit perplexed as to why that narrative starts to change.

“Andy served Rangers very well, it’s well documented that he’s been a Rangers supporter growing up, and all the rest of it.

“But he is fully committed to this club. I think all he was doing was showing a little bit of respect towards Rangers.

“I certainly don’t question his commitment towards this club. I haven’t for one second since he has been here, and I didn’t when he was trying to get on the end of that cross.”

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