There;s a clue in the playing career of Graham Alexander that he doesn't feel the need to man the panic station at times of high anxiety. As a nerveless penalty kick specialist he scored 61 goals from spot, the Motherwell boss isn't the type to make a drama out of a crisis.
Despite a Europa Conference League salvage mission facing his team in Sligo tomorrow night, the former Scotland defender prefers to describe the challenge as just another game of football. Aidan Keena's strike for the League of Ireland side last Thursday has Well walking a tightrope ahead of their second-round, second-leg qualifier but Alexander has stripped the challenge back to the basics.
He said: " What I always try to do when I was a player, as a manager, first games of the season, play-off semi-finals, play-off finals, cup finals... I always break it down to a game of football. When I was a player in the fourth division or Premier League, or an international, I broke it down to a game of football. Eleven players v eleven players, two goals and a football.
"And that's how I saw the game last week. I didn't see anything that made me think it was a different type of game of football.I played two-legged games as a player and a manager and that does change certain aspects of a game of football.
"If that had been one leg, we would have been a lot more gung-ho in the second half, certainly in the last 20 minutes, but there is a second leg to come. Nothing surprised me really. There was nothing different apart from one team playing away to try and get a result and another trying to get another result at home.
"It was what I expected to be honest. I have played two-legged games before, just not on a European stage. I thought it was two good teams trying to win the first leg."
The 50-year-old former Burnley full-back also insists there are major respect issues at play by anyone regarding the Irish side's win in Lanarkshire as a shock result as he opted to talk up tomorrow's hosts and insists there's no danger of any superiority complex inflicting anyone inside his club.
He said: "To expect teams not to be at a competitive level and good enough to beat you would be extremely disrespectful. I don't know if it's realistic or respectful or whatever, we are talking about a European cup competition.
"I can only speak for myself, my players and my staff, but we treated Sligo with the utmost respect as we would with anyone we compete against.It doesn't even enter into my mind and we try not to let it enter into the players' minds that we are playing someone who is inferior to us. I don't agree with that."
Alexander also admits Motherwell's main challenge at The Showgrounds may involve winning the mind game. He said: "There's a lot of things you have to do in a game of football to win it and a lot of that is physical and technical, but a lot of it is in the mind. So we always approach every game trying to maximise everything we have in those aspects."
The fallout from the Fir Park defeat brought the curtain up on Motherwell's season to the sound of boos but Alexander insists it comes with the territory. He said: "In football, if you don't get a result then you are always going to get criticised. Am I sitting here surprised at that? No.
"Does it make me change anything I would do in between games? No. Would it make me change the way I do my job? No.
"So that's how we go forward. I try to focus on what I can control and what I can influence and help my players win games of football. The rest of it happens."
Motherwell may go into the tie one goal behind but Alexander believes there's plenty of time to rescue their situation and he's adamant his team have more than enough quality to progress into a third round meeting with either Sparta Prague or Viking. He said: "There's at least another 90 minutes to go so there was no need to panic. We still have enough in our team and enough time to win the tie."
"My encouragement is from my team and my players. It's not about how the opposition did in the previous round or what happened ten years ago or three years ago or last year, it's about now. Every team in football is capable of good and poor results and performances.
"My confidence is down to how our players approach the game. We won't be thinking anything negative about our opponents as we did in the first leg too . For us it's about us improving the little bits we need to improve to get a positive result.
"To be honest I don't want my players looking at what Sligo or Bala Town did in the previous round because if we don't perform it's irrelevant what happened a few weeks ago. It's purely about our performance. We both know more about each other as teams. But we feel that we have made good strides in the three games we've played this season, outside last week's result.
"We know this is within our grasp and destiny and we have to do anything we can to do that. I don't think any team is infallible. That's the beauty of football and we have to give our best performance to turn it around."
