Source: FOOTYMAD
New Lease Of Life For Motherwell
Craig Brown is looking forward to the Europa Cup draw on 21 June to start the next chapter of his career Motherwell manager Craig Brown may be nearing his seventies but he is still looking forward to ne challenges. His team will be playing in the Europa League thanks to Dundee United lifting the Scottish Cup on Saturday. He pointed to the European experience in the coaching and playing staff which can propel Motherwell into the Europa League group stages. The Lanarkshire side will enter at the second qualifying round, which starts on July 15, the stage at which they knocked out Albanian side Flamurtari last season following an 8-1 home win. Brown will turn 70 a fortnight before his first European club tie but the former Scotland manager has a wealth of experience of international competition, having led his country to World Cup and European Championship finals. Well were the last Scottish team to play a UEFA Cup tie when they lost to Nancy in 2008 and were the first to play in the Europa League when they beat Llanelli last season, before eventually bowing out to Steaua Bucharest under Jim Gannon. Brown can look to his assistant Archie Knox for more experience as he won the European Cup Winners' Cup as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson with Aberdeen and enjoyed years of Champions League experience under Walter Smith at Rangers after leaving Manchester United weeks before Ferguson repeated his first European success. Brown said: "I have a lot of experience in European football. That's been my job for 16 years. I had 71 internationals and maybe 100 under-21 internationals and youth internationals. So it could add up to 300 European games. We were in two European semi-finals with the under-21s when Tommy Craig and I had the team. Archie, apart from Walter, must be the most experienced coach or assistant in Europe, the years he has had. Experience doesn't mean expertise, but you would be pretty daft if you didn't learn from that experience - even the best way to travel, organising hotels and preparations. The boys played Steaua Bucharest last year and Nancy the year before so they have had good European experience. We have to try to continue that and get through the rounds into the group stages. If we can do what Fulham did, we will be quite happy." Brown has provisionally accepted a friendly against Ayr United on 10 July as part of the Somerset Park club's centenary celebrations to help prepare for the game. The draw for the first and second qualifying rounds will take place on 21 June. Editor Ger Harley (ger@scottishfitba.net)Admin Team (admin@scottishfitba.net)This is Scottish-Fitba.Net
