Motherwell praise fans during Euro tie but crowd issues "not good enough"

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Motherwell have praised their fans for turning out in "great numbers" for their Europa Conference League qualifier against Sligo Rovers last night, but admitted there were a few problems.A crowd of 7227 packed into Fir Park last night as an Aidan Keena strike gave Rovers a 1-0 advantage to take into the second leg in Northern Ireland on Thursday evening.But while the Premiership club praised fans, saying the atmosphere was one of the best experienced in recent years, they admitted failings related to ticketing and seating, and said it's not good enough, but they will do better.And they said they and UEFA are looking in to an incident in which a plastic bottle was thrown at an official.In a statement, Motherwell said: "Despite the disappointment of the first-leg result against Sligo Rovers, we would like to place on record our sincere thanks to our supporters who turned out in great numbers for the match."The atmosphere, noise, and passion, particularly at the teams emerged from the tunnel, was amongst the best experienced in recent years."We know supporters went to great lengths to collectively raise money to add to the colour of the occasion, and backed the club fantastically by buying nearly 7000 tickets – one of our highest attended European games in recent times."It is very much appreciated and all our focus is now on trying to win the second leg and progress to the third qualifying round."We acknowledge and accept there were several issues relating to ticketing/seating in different parts of the ground, but particularly in the Phil O’Donnell stand.

An internal review is now underway to try and identify why this has happened and what lessons can be learned, both in terms of ticketing and stewarding, at future matches.