Legg: Their Lack of Respect will Fire Us
by CHRIS BARNEY of the South Wales Evening Post in Ventspils
Andy Legg has revealed that Venstpils's lack of respect and arrogance will provide Llanelli's motivation ahead of tonight's Champions League decider in Latvia (4pm BST).The Reds take a 1-0 lead into their first qualifying round second-leg clash in Ventspils courtesy of Stuart Jones's goal at Stebonheath Park and are on the verge of becoming only the second Welsh club to progress to the next stage of the competition.
Peter Nicholas, who led Barry to the second qualifying stage during the club's glory years, had done his homework on the two-time Virsliga champions before the first leg, obtaining information from various managers and also flying out to see them in action.
While Ventspils manager Roman Grigorshuk sent one of his coaches to Wales to see Llanelli beat Caerau Ely in a friendly, Legg pointed to the Latvians' ignorance and disrespect as added incentive to advance.
Legg, whose long throw assisted Jones's goal last week, said: ''They seemed confident that they would beat us three or four-nil but we showed them what we were made of.
''They are very arrogant people and none of them would shake our hands after the game. They didn't do their homework on us - that shows a total lack of respect.
''They thought they would just turn up and thrash us. That is obviously a weapon for us to use.
''It would be great financially for the club to get through and it would fill us with pride.
''It would be great to come off that pitch tonight seeing a lot of sad faces in yellow.''
Llanelli's journey to Latvia was hardly ideal. One part of the travelling group took 15 hours to get to their destination, with delays either side of the flight ensuring they didn't check in to their hotel until midnight yesterday.
A three-hour drive from Riga to Ventspils followed yesterday morning before they could check into their new hotel and go through their paces in a closed training session.
That went as planned, with Chris Holloway showing positive signs after missing out last week's victory with a haematoma, while Stephen Evans and Matthew Jones have recovered from knee and ankle problems.
Holloway could be the only change to the starting XI as Nicholas might be tempted to change his formation to defend their advantage.
But Legg believes his team-mates will have to score if they want to seal a second-round clash with Norwegian outfit SK Brann.
''We have got to show the same attitude as last week, throwing our bodies at every shot to block them,'' he said. ''We need to stand strong, but I think we need to score to go through.
''I don't feel we can go through 90 minutes without giving them a chance out here.
''Despite them being quite a tall side, I think we did particularly well in the air. Stuart Jones gave them major problems, and I wouldn't be surprised if he or Wyn Thomas get on the scoresheet tonight.''
