MOTHERWELL manager Graham Alexander insists his side have no right to be regarded as heavy favourites to progress as they try to repair the damage caused by last week's Europa Conference League first leg defeat to Sligo Rovers.

And the Lanarkshire club were handed a pre-game boost after key striker Kevin van Veen agreed a one-year contract extension to repel interest from his Dutch homeland.

A sluggish Motherwell were stung last week at Fir Park as the League of Ireland side took an important 1-0 first leg lead, with Alexander's side having it all to do. There was criticism because Well had only played two pre-season friendlies ahead of the game, with Sligo now into the business end of their season.

Well travel to the est coast of Ireland and have to win at a sold-out Showgrounds tomorrow, where the local interest has been so high, they explored the possibility of adding temporary seating to the ground before deeming it infeasible.

The Steelmen will have had an extra week's worth of fitness into their legs and Alexander insisted he had no regrets over last week's preparations after being asked if he believed it was fair Motherwell were regarded as strong favourites to progress.

He said: "I don't know if it's realistic or respectful or whatever, but we are talking about a European cup competition. To expect teams not to be at a competitive level and good enough to beat you would be extremely disrespectful.

"I can only speak for myself, my players and my staff, but we treated Sligo with the utmost respect as we would with anyone we compete against. It doesn't even enter into my mind and we try not to let it enter into the players' minds that we are playing someone who is inferior to us. I don't agree with that.

"There's a lot of things you have to do in a game of football to win it and a lot of that is physical and technical, but a lot of it is in the mind. So we always approach every game trying to maximise everything we have in those aspects.

"In football, if you don't get a result then you are always going to get criticised. Am I sitting here surprised at that? No.

"Does it make me change anything I would do in between games? No. Would it make me change the way I do my job? No.

"So that's how we go forward. I try to focus on what I can control and what I can influence and help my players win games of football. The rest of it happens."

Motherwell can take encouragement from the fact that Sligo also won 1-0 away in the first leg in the last round in Wales, but struggled at home against Bala Town and were fortunate to only lose 1-0 in 90 minutes before going through on penalties.

And the former Scotland international remains confident his players can turn the tie around, with last week being his first experience of a European tie in his long career.
He said: "My confidence is down to how our players approach the game. We won't be thinking anything negative about our opponents as we did in the first leg too. For us it's about us improving the little bits we need to get a positive result.

"To be honest I don't want my players looking at what Sligo or Bala Town did in the previous round because if we don't perform it's irrelevant what happened a few weeks ago.

"It's purely about our performance. We feel that we have made good strides in the three games we have plated this season, outside last week's result. We know this is within our grasp and we have to do anything we can to do that. I don't think any team is infallible. That's the beauty of football and we have to give our best performance to turn it around.

"Nothing surprised me really. What I always try to do when I was a player, as a manager in the first games of the season, play-off semi-finals, play-off finals, cup finals...I always break it down to a game of football. Eleven players v eleven players, two goals and a football.

"And that's how I saw the game last week. I didn't see anything that made me think it was a different type of game of football.

"I played two-legged games as a player and a manager and that does change certain aspects of a game of football.

"If that had been one leg, we would have been a lot more gung-ho in the second half, certainly in the last 20 minutes, but there is a second leg to come."

Well confirmed last night that 31-year-old striker van Veen - who was out of contract at the end of the season - has extended his deal by another season. He scored nine league goals since signing from Scunthorpe United last summer.