Thomas Jordan

The 22-year-old defender was among those pitched in at the deep end during the brief campaign, making his first start of the season in the 1-0 defeat to Levante in Spain on Thursday.

The Fir Park club did so, however, with a sense of pride at managing to avoid a whitewash at the hands of a team that finished sixth in La Liga last season.

It is not through choice that Stuart McCall, the Motherwell manager, finds himself preparing to field a team packed with teenagers and European debutants as they go up against Levante in their Europa League play-off round, second-leg encounter, but his limited squad has been savaged by injuries.

The Jamaican midfielder may miss the Europa League play-off round second leg due to a problem with his passport and is by no means certain of boarding the team flight. The 31-year-old made unsuccessful trips to both Edinburgh and London yesterday as he attempted to resolve the issue and McCall, who is short of players as they attempt to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the first leg, is keeping his fingers crossed that Daley makes the flight.

Amid the epic European ties and titanic Old Firm derbies it is unlikely that a Scottish Communities League Cup tie with East Fife would have been afforded any more than a footnote in his mind.

The former manager of Rangers and Scotland is convinced the decision not to accommodate the Ibrox outfit in the SPL will have massive consequences for top-flight clubs and believes Scottish football is already heading on a downwards spiral in which it could become no better than the League of Ireland.

The decision follows a vote on the fate of Charles Green's Sevco Scotland Limited, who had already been refused admission into the Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League.

But the humid conditions the Ibrox club were forced to endure inside the Ljudski Vrt Stadium will be nothing compared to the heat they will face if they are unable to turn this tie around in the second leg next week.