Llanelli 0 - 3 Motherwell: Less than a fortnight into the job and Jim Gannon is already making history. This relatively comfortable victory,not only secured Motherwell�s passage through to the second qualifying round of the �inaugural Europa League but also brought to an end a lamentable Scottish record.

Less than a fortnight into the job and Jim Gannon is already making history. This relatively comfortable victory, in his second match in charge, not only secured Motherwell's passage through to the second qualifying round of the inaugural Europa League but also brought to an end a lamentable Scottish record that had stood for more than 50 years.

Prior to this result, no team had progressed through a European knock-out tie after losing the first leg at home, Motherwell's win bringing that sorry sequence to an end while securing some much-needed co-efficient points as well.

Their reward is a tie in the next round with KS Flamurtari, the Albanian cup winners who finished sixth in their domestic league last season. With the first leg away from home on Thursday, the games continue to come thick and fast early in Gannon's reign.

There was little sign of the flatness that had restricted Motherwell's play in the first-leg defeat at Airdrie a week earlier. Instead, there was a vibrancy and zip, in the first half especially, as they pushed the Welsh part-timers back and encouraged Steven Hammell and Steven Saunders, the two full-backs, to get forward as often as they could. They did so unstintingly.

It will be John Sutton, though, who will claim most of this morning's headlines. The forward, who almost missed out with a groin injury, had toiled in the first match but showed on this occasion that he has few peers in the Scottish game when given an opportunity to launch himself fearlessly at crosses.

He missed a snip in the opening minutes, heading wide when it looked easier to score, but by half-time he had more than made amends as he twice towered over his markers to thump in headers.

"He showed a lot more mobility than a traffic cone tonight," Gannon later deadpanned, referring to criticism of the Englishman following his first-leg display.

Jamie Murphy's header, following a fine run and cross from Jim O'Brien, sealed the victory and sent Motherwell officials scurrying away to try to put together their itinerary for next week's trip to Albania.

Those were the positives for Gannon to chew over but there will be lingering concerns, too, as he later acknowledged. Michael Fraser, the goalkeeper fingered for the goal lost in the home leg, was uncomfortable again when asked to come and collect crosses, although he demonstrated his ability in shot-stopping, most notably from an Andy Mumford header that was well tipped over.

In front of him, Stephen Craigan and Mark Reynolds once more lacked conviction when it came to clearing their lines. It now seems almost inevitable that one of Gannon's next signings will be a towering centre-half.

For now, though, the manager was simply pleased and relieved to have made it through. "We've restored a bit of professional pride," he said. "You saw Motherwell last week and saw them this week so I'm pleased we've had an influence and they have grown in stature in the last week."

Gannon was less pleased with the performance of Milorad Mazic, the referee, who allowed some fierce tackling to go unpunished.

"The referee has to take control of the game and he didn't do that tonight. His first job is to protect the players."

Andy Legg, the Llanelli player-manager with the impressive long throw, remained philosophical despite his team's early exit from European competition.

"It could have been a lot worse," he said. "We tried to stifle them again but it didn't happen. That's the difference between pros and amateurs."

Llanelli had switched the tie from their 3700-capacity Stebonheath Park home to the Parc y Scarlets in the hope of attracting a substantial crowd but struggled to drum up much interest deep in rugby country despite the football team's unexpected heroics the previous week. Numbers were bolstered, temporarily at least, by the presence of the populous Llanelli Male Choir who almost needed a separate stand to house them all once they had ran through their impressive repertoire.

In the end, though, it was the Motherwell fans who went home singing as Gannon's rebuilding job continues apace.