Preview: Nancy (h)

Last updated : 01 October 2008 By Firparkcorner

The trouble with putting all your eggs in one basket is well known. The manager has hyped up our European campaign since May and the fans have been willing to forgive or overlook plenty of problems because of it. We are already out of the League Cup and, should we not do the business on Thursday, the season will be turned into a boring mid-table scrap while we wait on the Scottish Cup. And all before the first weekend in October. This was not part of the plan.

The team in Nancy

But sadly the fact is we are simply not as good as last season. Porter and Reynolds have has a dip in form while Hughes is a shadow of his former self, possibly due to the injury he has been carrying. It can also be argued that from our glory months of November and December when we were battering teams that O'Donnell and McCormack haven't been properly replaced.

We do have other strengths though. Malcolm provides a physical presence, if little else, that we had lacked and Murphy is showing his huge potential. Sutton seems to have the wonderful ability of being in exactly the right place and the right time in front of goal. Mark McGhee might not have found the system to get the best out of our current group of players yet but Thursday night would be a good place to start. We have to attack but our shaky defence will know one slip will almost certainly send us crashing out.

Nancy have a couple of players missing and are also likely to rotate their squad. Their 2-1 loss at Lyon at the weekend was respectable but in no way reflects the run-around they were given. They will be happy at being able to sit back and defend, which is their strength, while trying to hit on the break.

The most famous result in Nancy's European history was arguably when they defeated Schalke 3-1 in France having lost the first leg in Germany. Scottish football history is filled with dramatic comebacks at home by Aberdeen, Hibs and Kilmarnock. It can be done but we will need to be on top form and we will need a bit of luck on our side as well.

The fantastic fans

It will be a tense time but a 1-0 win shouldn't be beyond us. And then, who knows!

First leg match report.