Mark McGhee warns Scottish clubs that there is no guarantee that this season's disappointing season in European competition will not be repeated. McGhee's side, Motherwell, like Rangers, Celtic, Queen of the South and Hibernian, fell at the first hurdle when they lost home and away to French side Nancy in the UEFA Cup first round.

"I don't think it's a freak season, you could easily have the exact same season next season," he said.

"I think you would be disappointed if Celtic and Rangers lose against teams like Aalborg and Kaunas, but that happens all over Europe, the best lose against lesser teams.

"But if we get to the UEFA Cup again and draw a team as good as Nancy then we could easily get knocked out again in the first round."

However, McGhee is confident the class of Celtic and Rangers will eventually come through.

"I think we have got to really start to be honest and not create a story and ignore the facts.

"The fact is we played a really good Nancy team and lost, there is no great shame in that.

"Queen of the South did brilliantly and could have won. For a First Division team, it's fantastic they even made a game of it.

"Hibs in the Intertoto was another thing, I think Mixu (Paatelainen) feels himself it was probably premature, their season hadn't started.

"The disappointing results are Rangers losing to Kaunas. That's one of the ones we can say we don't expect to happen again.

"It happened to Celtic a few years ago when they lost to Artmedia but, in between times, they have qualified for the last 16 twice.

"Celtic lost to Aalborg and that was a really disappointing result.

"But a couple of really disappointing results doesn't add up to the end of Scottish football as a force in Europe."