Graham Alexander says Motherwell are as ready as they can be to host Irish side Sligo Rovers in the Europa Conference League tomorrow night.
The Steelmen clash with the Northern Irish side in the second qualifying round and know their opponents are ahead of them in competitive games, but Alexander says they will simply need to adapt as best they can.
The Fir Park boss has done his homework on the League of Ireland Premier Division side, who lost 2-0 to UCD on Sunday, but says it’s important that they don’t get too bogged down in that ahead of their first competitive outing this term.
Alexander, whose side warmed up for the match with a 1-0 friendly win over Partick Thistle on Saturday, said: “We’ve seen quite a few of their [Sligo’s] games, and we obviously watched the two games [first qualifying round]. We had somebody at their game on Sunday.
“It’s a really important game for us – and them – and we always do our analysis.
“But the biggest thing is us getting our game going, and not focusing too much on our opponents, because we show respect to everybody.
“We’ll have the information that we need to approach the game.
“I feel ready for it, but it’s not me that’s crossing the white line.
“I think the nature of the game now, you don’t get these long six-week pre-seasons to build up to your first competitive game. You don’t get six or seven pre-season games.
“I think you have to maintain the lads’ fitness during the off-season and we did that. They only had 10-14 days off in the summer and then we were back working remotely.
“They came back in great shape, but that match fitness, that match sharpness, you only get from games.
“I don’t think you ever go into game one where you are eventually after five or six games, but you can push it to a certain point.”
Alexander believes Saturday’s clash against Ian McCall’s Championship side was a useful exercise.
He added: “I think Saturday was really important for us to get 90 minutes into a lot of the boys, because only two or three did that over in Austria.
“It’s important that players understand that in a game like that they feel dead, but then they get a second wind and go in again, and I think you have to go through that three or four times before you’re where you need to be.
“You can’t replicate exactly league games or European games, because that tension... most of the time when you get to those stages a lot of the energy has been spent before the game anyway thinking about it and concentrating on it.
“The lads know these are pre-season friendlies, but to be fair they approached it in the right way, it was competitive, they worked their socks off, and we’ll see how they are on Thursday.
“We know Sligo are ahead of us in games, because their season is already underway, but we have to compete on all different levels and be adaptable.”
English goalkeeper Aston Oxborough was a trialist in the game on Saturday, and came on for Liam Kelly after 57 minutes.
Alexander is looking at the English 24-year-old while Scott Fox recovers from an injury, with Matty Connelly likely to go out on loan.
“We’ve got Liam Kelly, Scott Fox, and Matty Connelly, a young goalkeeper, and we’ll look to loan him out for his development – I think he needs to do that,” said Alexander.
“We brought Aston Oxborough in a few days ago. He came in on trial with me as a potential loan from Norwich when I was at Salford a couple of years ago, but unfortunately he got injured.
“We know he’s a good young goalkeeper, so he will still be with us for a bit hopefully, and we’ll see how we go from there.
“We have to try and improve and strengthen the squad in all areas, on limited funds, but we’ll see how that progresses.
“I know the board works exceptionally hard to give us whatever they can to make sure we’ve got a squad that at least gets us to the next transfer window, when the games are coming thick and fast.”
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