To be fair, it wasn't an unexpected shoreline, but what the performance roused, was a sense of belief that the men in Claret and Amber were capable of causing an upset. The two goals conceded were highly preventable, but on another night, Chris Humphrey's 20 yarder dips a few inches lower and crashes in off the underside of the bar; Michael Higdon gets a bit more direction on his header and plonks the ball behind the goalie; Henrik Ojamaa loses his gifted but selfish nuance, just once, and plays in Jamie Murphy to further his tally as the club's all time top European goal scorer.
However, on this night, under the dull Lanarkshire floodlit sky, those chances didn't find a way past a solid Pana back line. Velasquez and Boumsong took most things in their stride, and with the pace at which Sissoko, Lazaros and Toche could break, those missed opportunities transitioned from buoying the crowd, to frustrating them in equal measure as the game went on. Having far more posession and making far more chances than most home fans would have expected, swelled the noisy crowd in to belief that something could happen, but, alas, it was not to be. To go to Athens and overcome that two goal deficit, would go down in the annuls of MFC history as one of the greatest results in the Club's history.
While only Nostradamus would be able to predict such a ludicrous turn around, it is important that the players go to the the home of the Parthenon with the belief that they can do it. Otherwise, the plucky and lucky bunch of revellers making the pilgrimage will be nursing their Ouzo induced headaches with what might have been. Unfortunately funds and other commitments will not allow me to make the trip, but having had the pleasure of commentating for MFCTV for last night's game and getting one of the best seats in the house to do it form, has meant that my Champion's League experience was fantastic. (Although, there is a 99.9% chance that the commentary didn't actually go out to anyone...)
It was one of the busiest Media boxes I've seen at Fir Park for quite some time, and huddled up right next to my self and Graham "The Mouth of Motherwell" Barnstaple, were our Greek counterparts. After much faffing about trying to find a power supply, our plate smashing pals finally got settled, and got their own broadcast underway. They had screeds and screeds of what looked like the matrix on their computers, which they claimed was their own alphabet, although, bizarrely, there seems to be no Greek translation or spelling of "Jennigs" or "Craygen".
Despite seeing their team under the cosh for spells in the game, they weren't very loud or animated at either of the goals. Certainly nowhere near as jubilant as Graham and I would have been had The well managed to find the back of the net. Come the end of the game, they praised the skill, but not the style of Sissoko, and Velasquez powerful performance at the back, while singling out Law and Ramsden as the star men for the home side. With the latter looking fairly composed in his first competitive outing, Lawsy stole the show with his directness and eagerness to get forward and create. If he can do the same at the Olympic Stadium next week, he could be the catalyst for one of the all time great European comebacks.
Hopefully, I'll have trawled the web or found a pub with Al-Jazeera, to find a stream of next weeks match, which comes after a lengthy trip to Dingwall for the start of this season's SPL campaign. Ross County may be celebrating raising the title flag, but by no means will they be in party mode as they look to add to their highland history. McCall may opt to mix things about to rest players ahead of Athens, if he can afford that luxury. Regardless of the outcome of the trip north, the eyes of us all will be firmly on the return leg next week, with hope spurring everyone on. While dropping in to the Europa League is not the worst consequence of losing the current tie, realizing the dream of staying in the Champion's League that little bit longer, would taste that little bit sweeter.
Up The Well
