Recently dismissed by Kilmarnock, his arrival appeared like the ultimate roll of the cube.
It was again to the long run for County, a nod to the glory days of the not-so-lengthy-in the past when Kettlewell and co-supervisor – now chief government – Steven Ferguson guided Ross County to the Championship crown again in 2019.
Early indicators had been promising. In his first recreation again – in entrance of the BBC Scotland cameras – County downed excessive-flying Partick Thistle 2-0.
Defeats adopted to St Johnstone and Motherwell in cup competitions, no disgrace there.
The embers had been flickering, with three wins from their subsequent six league matches. However, the previous six have been winless. Four of these have been defeats.
That 4-0 loss to relegation rivals Airdrie tells a grim story and Kettlewell’s sturdy phrases felt like a determined try to salvage one thing. Anything.
A closing ‘Hail Mary’, stuffed with hope for a response somewhat than expectation. Can it stir an unlikely rally from a moribund squad?
If solely they may take a leaf out of the Queen’s Park e-book.
After shedding their finest participant Josh Fowler within the January window, few predicted the Spiders would climb out of their net of distress on the backside of the desk.
But a run of 4 wins from six video games in February and March remodeled their season and all of a sudden they’d a glimpse of constructing the promotion play-off locations.
Form has tailed off barely however simply two defeats of their previous 9 matches means they continue to be buoyant and final week they held league leaders St Johnstone to a 1-1 attract Perth.
County can get off the underside of the desk with a win on Friday. It would transfer them some extent above Airdrieonians, albeit the Diamonds would have two video games in hand.
With 4 fixtures remaining, County’s survival possibilities seem slim.
They have received the fewest video games within the division and misplaced probably the most; they’re the joint lowest scorers and have conceded the best variety of targets.
There is a small sliver of hope for the Staggies, primarily based on the three earlier conferences with Queen’s Park this season. The away facet has edged it every time and County actually need to hold that sequence going.
