Alfred Johansson said he could not have asked for much more after Motherwell FC beat HB Torshavn 5-0 on aggregate to reach the next stage of Conference League qualifiers, with the second leg ending in a 3-0 victory in the Faroe Islands.
The result was a major start for Johansson in his first match as Motherwell manager. It also ended a long wait for the club, which had not won an away game in Europe since 2010.
A strong start for the new manager
Johansson had only recently replaced Jens Berthel Askou, and Motherwell went into the tie with a disrupted build-up. They were without eight injured players in the first leg, while Elliot Watt and Elijah Just departed before the tie.
Even with those issues, Motherwell managed the job over 90 minutes in the second leg on an artificial surface, controlling the game and keeping HB Torshavn from turning the tie into a real contest. Johansson said the team’s hard work, loyalty and humbleness were central to the outcome.
He also praised the intensity of the display, saying Motherwell were brave enough to play the way they want to play football away from home. In his view, the performance was built on strong defensive work, aggression and a refusal to be bullied by physical play and long balls.
What it means going forward
The win gives Motherwell a timely lift before Sunday’s league opener away at Hibernian. It also offers an encouraging first look at how Johansson wants the team to play, even with five summer signings arriving before much of pre-season work had been completed.
Johansson was quick to add a note of caution, though. He said some players are still not ready to play 90 minutes and that the squad still has a distance to go before everyone is performing at the level he wants. For now, though, the new Motherwell manager has a result that matters both historically and practically.
