Alfred Johansson admitted he could not have asked for any more in his first assignment as Motherwell manager after the Steelmen cruised to a 5-0 aggregate win over HB Torshavn in the Conference League qualifiers.
Goals from Lukas Fadinger, Regan Charles-Cook and Dylan Williams earned Johansson’s side a 3-0 second-leg victory on an artificial surface in the Faroe Islands.
The Swede had been without eight injured players in the first leg and saw Elliot Watt and Elijah Just depart in the build-up to the tie, while five summer signings had arrived after much of Motherwell’s pre-season work was done.
But, without a recognised centre-forward starting either leg because of injury, they comfortably navigated a tricky tie to make a positive start to life after Jens Berthel Askou.
Johansson said: “We are the first team in 10 years to win here in European qualification. It’s Motherwell’s first away victory in Europe since 2010. So if you had told me 5-0 before the game, okay, that’s maybe a little too optimistic.
“But it’s down to the hard work and the loyalty and humbleness of this team.”
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The former Rosenborg manager said: “I’m delighted about the intensity of the team. We managed to be brave enough to play the way we want to play football, also away from home, and obviously delighted with the result.
“I also think it was because we were really strong defensively and had all the intensity and aggression that’s needed. We did not let them bully us with their physicality and long balls. We controlled that really well.”
Johansson, whose side open their league campaign away at Hibernian on Sunday, added: “When some of our players are still not ready to play 90 minutes, we have to be humble enough to admit we still have a distance to go before everyone is performing and everyone is on fire like we want.”
