European dream a capital challenge for Clancy and Co

Tuesday 1 May 2012

IT is starting to seem as though it will take the sharp blast of a referee's whistle in some far flung corner of Europe before anyone at Motherwell will be roused to the reality of Champions League football.

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Chris Tait

The Fir Park side have proven to be a guarded lot this season, despite Rangers' travails leaving a place open at Europe's top table for the club that finishes third in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League. For weeks that has been Motherwell. For weeks they have tried their best to seem oblivious.

That could all change by 9.30pm tomorrow, though. The Fir Park side will face Hearts tonight, and should they accrue three more points and Dundee United fail to take anything from a trip to Ibrox tomorrow evening, then Motherwell will have secured third place with two games to spare.It all sounds simple enough – a notion franked by a 5-1 demolition of St Johnstone at the weekend – but Motherwell are disinclined to complicate matters by talking as if it is already done and dusted. Not even the adverts for next term's season tickets mentioned the prospect of a European campaign until this week.Admittedly it would be imprudent to dismiss a trip to Tynecastle as little more than an inconvenience on the way to another three points – Motherwell were soundly beaten 2-0 when they went there in December – and they will be aware that United have not exactly been swept aside by Rangers this season. Yet there has been a consistency to Motherwell that makes it difficult to see them coming undone now."It's been a very long season because it started early but we are now in the final stretch," said Tim Clancy, the Motherwell defender. "We have three tough games left and we hope to win to get over the line. A win [tonight] would be brilliant but if not, we will concentrate on the game on Saturday. It's brilliant for the club but we are not in the Champions League qualifiers yet. We've still got to get there and we've a massive game against Hearts."Not everyone will be rooting for them to succeed in Edinburgh, though. Motherwell have still to face United once more this season, at Fir Park on the final day. The idea of the race to reach the Champions League going all the way to one all-or-nothing showdown is an enthralling one, especially given how rare such things usually are in Scottish football, with the Old Firm sauntering blithely into the competition every year.Stuart McCall would be unlikely to enjoy such an outcome, of course, even if his hopes of Hearts saving their best players for their Scottish Cup final meeting with Hibernian were delivered through a wide grin. "I think Paulo [Sergio, Hearts manager] has got to be looking at resting all 20 players in his squad and playing loads of kids . . . the cup final is a big day and he doesn't want to get beaten by Hibs, does he?" said the Motherwell manager."Everyone is talking about that game [with United] being the decider, well it could be but we would love it not to be. They have got the Old Firm to play while we have got just as difficult games with Hearts and Rangers away. It might go down to the last game, but that will be down to us."

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European dream a capital challenge for Clancy and Co

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