A left-back who was captain of Liverpool's reserve team for three years, winning the Central league on seven occasions. Kettle was never able to push Alec Lindsay, Joey Jones or Alan Kennedy out of the first team and only made four appearances. He was sold to Wigan where he played 14 games before going into non-league football. Kettle did confront Paisley over his lack of first-team opportunities in 1977 as he told the official Liverpool site: "When I was 21 years of age I went into the office to see Mr. Paisley. I'd played a couple of games but Joey Jones was still above me in the pecking order and I wanted to know if I had a future at the club. As I made my way along the corridor to his office I was running through what I was going to say in mind and felt really sure of myself as I knocked on the door. But as I went in, arms behind my back like a little school-kid all my best laid plans went to pot. 'Excuse me boss,' I said. 'Yes son.' 'What's my future?' 'Your future? You're only 21! Who do you think I am – Patrick flaming Moore!' 'Oh, erm, okay,' I said sheepishly, turned round and walked out! That was that!"

After leaving Liverpool Brian had spells with Dallas Tornado and Wigan Athletic, before dropping into non league and playing for Runcorn, Bangor City and South Liverpool. In 1988/89 he managed South Liverpool, guiding them to a Liverpool Senior Cup triumph. He then managed Southport, taking them up from the Northern Premier League to the Conference in 1993. The club were challenging for promotion to the Football League when he resigned for personal reasons in March 1995.  He was manager at Northwich Victoria in 1995/96, reaching the final of the FA Trophy where they lost 3-1 to Macclesfield at Wembley. He quit just two days later and took over at Stalybridge Celtic, who like Southport and Northwich were also in the Conference. He was sacked by them in September 1997 after a disappointing start to the season. His last management job was at Rhyl in the early 2000s although he did have a brief stint with AFC Liverpool in 2010 as assistant manager of their reserve side.