HUGHES DREAMS OF EURO ADVENTURE

Hughes - wants European football.

Falkirk manager John Hughes would have loved to have been in the shoes of Motherwell counterpart Mark McGhee in tasting European football this season.

The Bairns boss was in the crowd at Fir Park on Thursday night to watch Sunday's opponents exit the UEFA Cup in disappointing fashion with a 3-0 aggregate defeat by French outfit Nancy.

Hughes fears his team could suffer the backlash of the Steelmen's failure to follow Aberdeen in reaching the group stages of the competition by crashing out at the first hurdle.

However, despite admitting his side are not yet ready to grace the continent as they meet the goals of their five-year plan, he is still keen to test his managerial skills against some of Europe's best.

He said: "I would definitely liked to have been in Motherwell's shoes on Thursday.

"As a coach and a manager and a player you always want to go as far as you can in the game.

"It would be great if we could bring European football to Falkirk.

"But even if we had a wonderful season and we did that, it would come too early.

"Football comes in cycles and we are only just getting through our first five-year cycle.

"That was to get into the SPL and build the infrastructure of the club, getting the young kids coming through and establishing ourselves as an SPL club."

Falkirk lifted themselves off the foot of the SPL with last weekend's 4-1 win over top-flight newcomers Hamilton.

However, despite overcoming a sticky start to the season, during which they faced Rangers, Celtic, Hibernian and Hearts within the opening five league games, Hughes believes his team will be up against it taking on last term's third-placed finishers.

He added: "Mark has got a good number of players to choose from. John Sutton has been in good goal-scoring form, young Jamie Murphy looks lively, Chris Porter is back after his suspension, David Clarkson is up there and Stephen Hughes and Bob Malcolm are in the middle of the park.

"It will be a good game but if we go there and take anything from the match it will be a real achievement.

"They finished third last season and we finished seventh. We'll have to go there and be at our best to take anything from the game."