Stuart Kettlewell has ‘high hopes’ for Ben Brannan after Kilmarnock debut

Stuart Kettlewell revealed “high hopes” for Ben Brannan after the teenager scored on his Kilmarnock debut against Brora Rangers on Saturday.

The 18-year-old midfielder came through the Rugby Park academy and had a loan spell at Championship side Inverness in the second half of last season.

In Kettlewell’s first game as Killie boss on the opening day of the season, Brannan broke the deadlock in the Premier Sports Cup group game against the Highland League side in the 39th minute with a shot from inside the box.

Djenairo Daniels, the new Dutch striker from Cork City also making his debut, added a second for the visitors in the 80th minute to bring three points back to Ayrshire.

Kettlewell told Killie’s official X account: “I don’t often pick people out but I thought he (Brannan) was probably our most eye-catching player throughout the day. Really good.

“You can see that the loan to Inverness has helped him as an individual.

“He’s a lad that I knew of because an obsession of trying to get to know football players, not just at one club but around the country.

“So he’s one that we’ve got high hopes for and quite clearly, like us all, we all need to improve, we all need to get better.

“But we changed him, we moved him to that right-hand side, he comes in from the left and covered the back area really well with a composed finish.

“But just trying to encourage him to give us a bit more because we believe in his talent and what he can bring to the party.

“We don’t want him to wait five or 10 minutes to get going in the game. We want him to stamp up on it as quick he possible can.

“It was an unbelievable travelling support, a long, long journey, but it was nice for them to see one of their own coming in and scoring the goal and the first goal of the competitive season.”