BBC Sportfootball

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Related BBC sites

Page last updated at 21:30 GMT, Thursday, 9 July 2009 22:30 UK

Gannon targets new Well recruits

Motherwell manager Jim Gannon
Gannon saw his side grab a quick goal at the Parc y Scarlets

Manager Jim Gannon is anxious to recruit some new Motherwell faces after the Europa League win at Llanelli.

The Steelmen face a visit to Albanian side Flamurtari next week after securing a 3-1 aggregate win in Wales.

"There's a sense of urgency now that we have an opportunity to bring players in before the registration deadline," Gannon told BBC Radio Scotland.

"We're looking forward to getting two or three in. We're in the next round and that might speed up the process."

Gannon's first signing was former Tranmere midfielder Steve Jennings and he will be eligible for the trip to Albania after missing both legs against Llanelli.

"Despite all the qualities we showed tonight, you can see some of the obvious weaknesses in the team and I don't want to be too reliant on young players," added Gannon, who saw John Sutton score twice in the first half and Jamie Murphy add a third at the Parc y Scarlets.

"The young lads will play a big part over the season but we need a solid bunch of professionals that are able to do a job over the campaign."

Following an embarrassing home defeat in his first game in charge, Gannon's nerves were settled by an early Sutton header in Wales and the visitors eased to victory despite some rough treatment in the second half.

"The fans who travelled down saw a vast improvement and on that performance we deserved to go through," added Gannon.

"We got the ball to our wide players from better angles and once we got our full-backs involved you could see we were going to penetrate with effective crossing."

Motherwell looked shaky at set-pieces but managed to keep a clean-sheet much to the delight of the former Stockport boss.

"It was always going to be difficult against so many six footers and so many players with big frames but we didn't concede," he said.

"Young Stevie Saunders put his head in where it matters and that's what you need. All the tactics don't really matter if you have players that don't want to concede first and foremost."

Motherwell striker John Sutton
Sutton scored twice in Motherwell's 3-0 second leg victory

Gannon was upset by some of Llanelli's bad-tempered tackling after the break and was critical of Serbian referee Milorad Mazic.

"My concern was that some of the challenges were premeditated," he explained.

"I can accept clumsy challenges or someone over-stretching and catching an opponent but there were a few when you could see they were determined to get the man if they didn't get the ball.

"When you see a game deteriorate like that, the referee needs to stamp his authority but he was very weak.

"You wouldn't have to be long in the game to know that they were offences worth a caution - and then you calm a player down, once you get that yellow card, you know you have to be careful.

"The referee should have made sure those players weren't able to continue with a second and third tackle of a similar nature."

Of next week's trip to Albania, Gannon said: "It's a mystery tour, we don't know much about them. I'm just looking forward to being in the next round of the Europa League.

"Most importantly we need to prepare professionally and make sure the trip goes as smoothly as possible and the players are in maximum form for the game.

"We'll learn a lot about the opposition from the first tie and we'll have another week to work on that before the home leg."



Print Sponsor


see also
Llanelli 0-3 Motherwell (1-3)
09 Jul 09 |  Europe
Legg hails Llanelli's finest win
02 Jul 09 |  Welsh
Gannon upbeat despite Europa loss
02 Jul 09 |  Motherwell
Motherwell 0-1 Llanelli
02 Jul 09 |  Europe


related bbc links:

related internet links:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites