It was hardly lost on Simon Ramsden yesterday that he had stepped off a six-and-a-half hour flight to be greeted with questions on a subject which feels must closer to home.

The tone of these was gentle since there had been enough turbulence felt on the journey from Lanarkshire to Krasnodar in the south-west corner of Russia, where Motherwell will contest the second leg of a Europa League third round qualifier tonight. The Scottish side trail the tie 2-0 on aggregate.

Ramsden stood up to the mention of that scoreline stiffly. It is the instinctive response of a defender and he rebuffed suggestions that the tie is already over and that his side have made the trip only as a matter of course, although he had not been followed out of the plane by any of James McFadden, John Sutton or Iain Vigurs. There is a match with Aberdeen on Sunday to contend with and those three players have been spared the trip so to avoid fatigue ahead of a match which assumed greater significance.

The vernacular ahead of a second leg with Kuban is made to seem familiar then - Motherwell having gone with the intention to "keep it tight" and ensure a "solid platform". These are necessities for an away leg in European competition but the terms describe an acknowledgement that a more adventurous approach is not as valuable as gaining a sense of morale and assurance by taking a draw, or even a narrow defeat, against a side which has not lost a Russian Premier League game since November last year.

Motherwell were able to inflict the latter on Hibernian last Sunday and were heartened by having kept a clean sheet, too. Ramsden had been shifted to right-back for that match to accommodate summer signing Stephen McManus at centre-half alongside Shaun Hutchinson and it is a position which the former Bradford City player is content to occupy if it leads to a feeling of security among the back four, which is completed by left-back Steven Hammell. Their resolve will be tested more rigorously tonight - the same rearguard surrendered those two goals in the first leg - but Ramsden is unbowed.

"Stephen McManus has come in and has great experience but all four of us have played quite a few games in our careers," said the 31-year-old. "We are looking pretty strong at the back and that's always a good platform to build on. If you have a good defensive unit you generally don't concede many, and hopefully we can get some goals ourselves.

"I have played right-back for the majority of my career, although last season I played centre-half all season and really enjoyed it there. If the manager feels he needs to put me back to centre-half or centre-midfield that's fine, I'm quite comfortable in a few roles. As long as I'm playing I'm happy."

The absence of McFadden and Sutton will afford an opportunity for a less established member of the squad to join in - Bob McHugh and Henri Anier both auditioned for the striker's role with outings at Easter Road - but Stuart McCall has not allowed that to replace a sense of belief that his side's European ambitions can be resurrected. "Kuban showed how strong they are defensively at Fir Park," said the Motherwell manager. "We are keeping the experienced back four intact and hopefully we can get a solid platform, and who knows, if we can get the first goal it puts a different perspective on the tie."

Ramsden's own view will be restricted mainly to keeping Kuban out but he was still given to glance at how easily the tie could turn. "It's not ideal circumstances being 2-0 down, but an early goal or maybe them going down to 10 men, then anything can happen in football. Hopefully we can do the business."