Preview: Nancy (a)

Mark McGhee has made much of the different style which might have to be adopted for this two-legged encounter with AS Nancy-Lorraine and has said, "We have to be prepared to win 1-0 over the two legs". No doubt we'd settle for that!

Can they give us a goal?

We know that our style has never been defensive and that our best form of defence is attack. Over the last year Motherwell's success had been built on a fast passing game, can we cope with a change? Does this mean the return of Malcolm sitting in front of the back four and the consequent reduction in our strikeforce? All will be revealed on Thursday evening.

The French should be aware of our usual formation, strengths and weaknesses but the information they are receiving from ex-Nancy player Zitellli might surprise the travelling fans. The former Hibbee is quoted on the official Nancy site commenting on the SPL style as, "c'est du pur football britannique, du kick-and-rush".

Nancy are widely reported to be a team which is short in the goal scoring department. It seems that they base their success on good defence. It is also said that they resort to the long ball tactic to make the best of their big strikers.

They have a missed a few regulars recently due to injury but we have to expect that a full strength opposition will line up for the 6pm (UK time) kick off.

We have the advantage of the home leg to come and, assuming our defending has improved from Saturday,

there is every reason to expect a fantastic night at Fir Park in early October.

It will be a tense affair but with any luck we might return with the advantage of an away goal following a 1-1 draw.