Motherwell dish out Conference League pasting as Steelmen approach catching fire amid boss' striker joke

The Steelmen won their second leg 3-0 at Faroese opposition on Thursday night. Lukas Fadinger and Regan Charles-Cook strikes in the first half ended the second round tie as a competitive contest as attentions turned towards their next continental challenge, likely to be in Finland, against HJK Helsinki. Dylan Williams put gloss on an impressive performance and their next European ties take place on August 6 and 13 with the away leg up first after Sunday’s Premiership curtain raiser with Hibs.

“Delighted about the intensity of the team,” said manager Johansson of the win. “We managed to be brave enough to play the way that we want to play football, also away from home, and obviously delighted with the result. I think that when some of our players still are not ready to play 90 minutes in a game like this, then we also need to be humble enough to admit that we still have a distance to go before we're performing, and everyone is on fire like the way we want.”

What happened during HB Torshavn vs Motherwell?

The Fir Park side headed for the Faroe Islands with a two-goal lead thanks to Martin Moormann and Fadinger efforts last week. Boss Johansson anticipated a far different affair to the one Motherwell controlled at Fir Park seven days earlier and that came to pass with their hosts adopting a more aggressive approach early doors. That storm passed with those in claret and amber soon taking full control.

Charles-Cook missed a one versus one opportunity that would have killed the tie off inside 15 minutes but Willie Vogt was fouled in the Torshavn box. That allowed Fadinger to dispatch the resulting penalty and Charles-Cook made up with previous chance with a lovely run that ended with Motherwell’s second goal. Williams was next on the scoresheet as he broke from left-back to score his first in claret and amber since joining from Burton Albion prior to leg one. Johansson’s side racked up five goals with a recognised striker but playing without a number nine doesn’t concern the manager.

“Well, then it’s probably 10-0,” joked the Fir Park boss on playing with a striker. “I can't answer that question. I think we've done brilliantly without a proper nine. We will probably do well with a proper nine too, but you can't say just because we get a nine, then we're going to score even more goals. I don't see it in that way.”

How will Motherwell fare vs HJK Helsinki?

HJK will provide a step up in quality as the second leg against HB started a run of five matches within a fortnight. Johansson added: “This is an even stronger opponent that we're going to face. So, yeah. But at the same time, we need to bring the confidence from these two games that we've played because we've done really, really well.

“We should go to those two games with high confidence. But now we will only, only, only, only focus on Hibs. If you would have told me 5-0 before the game, yeah, okay, that's maybe a little bit too optimistic. But it's down to the hard work and the loyalty and the humbleness of this team. That's all credit to them.”