Stephen Frail: Craig Levein appointment at St Johnstone won’t affect Motherwell

Stephen Frail claims former team-mate Craig Levein’s appointment as St Johnstone boss will have no impact on Motherwell’s focus ahead of their crucial clash on Tuesday night.

The 59-year-old former Scotland boss signed a contract for the Premiership’s bottom side which runs until May, 2026.

Levein, whose previous clubs include Hearts, Dundee United and Leicester, succeeds Steven MacLean, who left the Perth club last week and he will face the struggling Lanarkshire side in his first game at McDiarmid Park.

Well assistant manager Frail, who played with Levein at Tynecastle, said: “Craig is a very experienced manager, I know him well from my playing days at Hearts and I wish him well in the job.

“The last time he was involved in the dugout was probably 2019.

“I haven’t spoken to him in a while, the last time I spoke to him he was at Brechin (club advisor) and I was briefly working with East Fife so it will be nice to see him and catch up because we were close as players at Hearts, he took me under his wing a little bit.

“They will be looking to get up the league but in terms of what we are doing – it doesn’t impact what we do.

“I am sure Craig will be trying to do as well as he can for St Johnstone but as I say it doesn’t impact on anything we are trying to do tomorrow night.”

Stuart Kettlewell’s men are in the middle of a slump with their 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock at the weekend their sixth loss in seven matches and they have slid down to ninth in the table.

Frail defended Kettlewell’s record, saying: “We have assessed everything over the last few weeks. The manager has a 50 per cent win rate and a 70 per cent unbeaten ratio so we are not getting too hung up on it.

“There won’t be many managers getting questioned on that.

“We are disappointed and frustrated and we are doing everything we can to arrest (form), we have only taken one point from seven games.

“We believe we have the quality and players and believe we can get back to winning ways against St Johnstone which will be a very difficult fixture for us.”

Motherwell will assess the fitness of Calum Butcher and Brodie Spencer, as both sustained suspected broken noses against Killie.

The Fir Park club are waiting on the scan results on Paul McGinn’s “nasty looking” cheek injury which “possibly” means a long term absence.