Oran Kearney welcomes Motherwell Europa League test

The Bannsiders, who dumped Maribor out of the competition last will, will host the Scottish Premiership outfit at The Showgrounds on September 17th.

Kearney of course has come up against The Steelmen before during his season with St Mirren and he knows how difficult it will be against the side who knocked out Glentoran.

“I’m very friendly with Stephen, I know the great job he’s done at Motherwell and the quality of players he has and we’re under no uncertain terms about how tough it’s going to be,” he told the BBC.

“We’ll probably be in contact as there’s a good friendship there and mutual respect, I’ve a lot of time for him.

“Motherwell finished third in the league last season, Stephen has amassed a great squad there full of fantastic players, they’re full-time, we’re part-time, and also you look at their result against Glentoran last week.

“So we’ve a fair idea of what we’ll be up against, me probably more than most.

“We knew on Sunday night that the draw had been split up into the different groups, so we knew it was going to be one of The New Saints, Motherwell or Copenhagen.

“When you looked at Copenhagen, their coefficient and the fact that Manchester United only put them out in extra time in last season’s competition then it was the one to dodge.

“So yeah TNS or Motherwell was the one for us, but I think the home draw was what we wanted.

"We'll leave it to others to give their opinion on the game, but we'll be back to business again on Tuesday night and prepare accordingly."

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