ON RED ALERT

Alexander will ensure Fir Park stars give Sligo respect in bid to avoid another embarrassing European episode

WHEN the League of Ireland opted to move to a summer season almost 20 years ago, the hope was that sides competing in Europe would punch above their weight.

The intervening years have seen a number of casualties slump to the canvas. Partizan Belgrade and BATE Borisov were famously given bloody noses by Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk, respectively, with both sides also progressing to the group stage of the Europa League.

What was initially an experiment has long been deemed a resounding success. There is no way back now. Respect has been earned the hard way.

Motherwell will step out against Sligo Rovers in the Conference League qualifiers this evening as short-priced favourites to progress over the course of two legs, yet are by no means the certainties they once would have been.

Third in their league last season and currently sitting fifth, the men from the West of Ireland will be viewed with a healthy degree of caution.

‘Sometimes in football, people can be incredibly disrespectful to professional football teams or even part-time football teams,’ said Fir Park boss Graham Alexander. ‘People take their own club and their own job and their own lives really seriously. Just because others are at different levels doesn’t mean you should look down on someone.

‘Just because we might not have heard of a team — and everyone has heard of Sligo Rovers — doesn’t mean anything.

‘I remember this when playing for Scotland. Sometimes you hadn’t heard of players but they were good players and they played at that level for a reason. I am sure there were lots of players who played against me who had never heard of me either.

‘I always fully respect every opponent we come up against and every opponent, every team and every manager because it’s a hard sport, especially at the professional level.

‘Everyone has good analysis and good organisation, with motivated people and talent. We won’t be taking anybody we play lightly. I can assure everyone of that.’ Alexander (pictured) was still charging up and down the flank for Burnley when Motherwell’s Europa League campaign of 2009-10 was getting under way but he’ll doubtless have been made aware of how it unfolded. Facing part-timers Llanelli in the opening qualifier, Motherwell slumped to an embarrassing loss at home in the first leg only to comfortably turn the tie around in Wales. Despite the fact that Jim Gannon’s side progressed to face Flamurtari then Steaua Bucharest, the Llanelli episode still proved to be a red flag marking the dangers that can lurk when sides go in undercooked. ‘I don’t know how we can counteract that, apart from being as mentally and physically prepared as we can be,’ said Alexander. ‘It’s obviously strange, playing in the same competition when the two teams are at different stages of their seasons. But the opposition always have some sort of quality or advantage in some aspect, and you have to balance that out by being better at them in other things.’

Regardless of the one obvious advantage that Sligo enjoy here, the plain fact is that if Alexander’s men apply themselves fully, then they should get the job done with something to spare.

‘People can impact their own lives and performances to get success and that’s what we try to do and that’s what we focus on,’ he said.

‘The biggest thing is doing that. We know Sligo are a good team. They have some good threats and they are here in this round because they are a good team. You’re not in Europe if you’re not a competitive team that can get results.

‘But we feel we deserve to be on this stage as well for what we did last season. The players are excited about it and that’s important. We’re not blasé. We see it as a real challenge but an exciting one.’

The fact his team’s match preparation has extended to no more than friendlies with Vorwarts Steyr in Austria and Partick Thistle is more through accident than design. Other run-outs were in the pipeline but fell by the wayside.

‘We tried to play more than two pre-season games,’ said Alexander. ‘We’d arranged games but they were cancelled, which was unfortunate. That was outwith our control.

‘Previously we’ve played pre-season games early on where you don’t get much out of them. You only get half of your team physically fit because you can only play half your players because you can only play 11.

‘We’ve tried to do it with conditioned bounce games where you’re getting equal minutes into all the players. It doesn’t give that sort of unknown quality because obviously you’re playing against your team-mates, but I think the beauty of pre-season is that everyone is starting from scratch and everyone is ultra-competitive.’

He will know soon enough if his players are ready. While it will be a night for them to savour and remind themselves of the hard yards run over 38 games to reach this point, a victory is non-negotiable.

‘We have to see it as a reward for last season,’ said Alexander. ‘We worked exceptionally hard over the last ten or 11 months last season in order to get to this stage. We don’t want it to fly by.

‘Whenever you’re playing, you’re playing to win. That’s the reality. It’s not an occasion for us. It’s not like: “Oh, this is great for us, let’s enjoy the occasion Let’s try to win”. That’s what we do all the time.’