Jim Gannon trusted his young Motherwell players to overcome the 1-0 deficit from the first leg and was paid back in style.

Motherwell manager Jim Gannon was in eith heaven last night after his young players promoted from the youth team scored in an incredible 8-1 Europa League winover Flamurtari. Teenager Jamie Murphy scored an 18-minute hat-trick and there were first career goals for Shaun Hutchinson, Paul Slane, Robert McHugh and Ross Forbes, who hit a double. The Steelmen were 7-0 up before the 50-minute mark at Airdrie as they emphatically recovered from their 1-0 first-leg deficit to book a third qualifying-round contest with Steaua Bucharest. Gannon had made four changes from the first leg in a bold team selection and it paid off in the most convincing style possible.

Gannon said: "There was some talk of a gamble playing kids. Anyone who knows my track record knows I have trust in kids. They are the lifeblood of football. Five kids scored and there were a lot of fantastic performances. I can assure them this won't be the highlight of their careers." When asked about Murphy's hat-trick performance, Gannon said: "He was one of a number of stars. You've got to give good credit to the team and the way they created the goals. They were good centre-forward goals. I've a lot of faith in the kid, I brought him in because I thought he could provide an edge and he certainly did. So did Slaney, so did Ross and young Hutch, and young Bob when he came on."

Gannon added: "My work is done on the training field and on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked really, really hard on how we wanted to play every aspect of this game. The preparation was excellent and the players responded well. They took stuff from the training ground and really implemented it well." Gannon hopes to make a signing today with the next game in Bucharest on Thursday in mind, and a right-back appears his priority. Speaking yesterday, the former Stockport manager went on: "We'll have another player in tomorrow, I'm almost certain of that, because that would then give me an opportunity to work really hard to get a wildcard in before the game."

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