Motherwell boss Graham Alexander has described Motherwell’s Europa Conference League exit to Sligo Rovers as a ‘hurtful night’ for the club.

Behind by a goal from the first leg, the Steelmen didn’t make things easy for themselves when they conceded early on to a Shane Blaney set piece.

Behind by two, the Scottish side did press their Irish opponents throughout but struggled to muster many meaningful chances.

Rovers’ Max Mata confirmed what was a shattering night for the ‘Well when he netted in injury time at the end of the game. The result was met by a chorus of boos from the travelling Motherwell fans.

“That’s the game”, a distraught Alexander said. “If you look at our last two games at Fir Park, we’re doing a lap of honour because we’ve qualified for Europe and the next one we’re getting nailed. But that’s football. There will be criticism. It’s not the first time the I or the team have been criticised and it won’t be the last.”

Looking back over both legs, the former Scottish international said the League of Ireland side did everything right, while his side struggled to perform.

“I can’t defend too vigorously because I think we’ve let ourselves down. Not so much in the first leg, but tonight I thought they did the basics much better than we did. We now have to break our game down to get into doing the basics well enough to win games. It’s a hurtful night.”

A sold-out Showgrounds did not have to wait long for the game’s first goal as Rovers had a dream start.

Without a wall in front of him, Motherwell goalkeeper Liam Kelly could only watch on as Blaney’s superbly struck set piece twisted and turned in the air, beyond the visitor’s sprawling captain and into the top corner.

Now needing three goals to progress, Motherwell spent most of the remainder of the half doing most of the pressing.

Callum Slattery blazed an effort over the Sligo crossbar on ten minutes, while Motherwell had a goal disallowed in the 13th minute.

Ricki Lamie bundling Blair Spittal’s cross beyond Luke McNicholas, but the cheers of the travelling support was quelled when the Norwegian officials adjudged Lamie to have strayed offside in the lead up.

Kevin Van Veen spurned a great chance to halve the deficit on 17 minutes, but the Dutch man could only head Spittal’s free-kick from out wide straight at McNicholas.

As with the first leg, the Irish outfit were fairly comfortable in dealing with the Motherwell press and almost struck on the counter before the break.

Connor Shields went close early on in the second half, but was unable to turn Morris’ centred ball past the stationary McNicholas.

McNicholas threw his hat on a Lamie header from a Morris corner 66 as Motherwell’s frustrations continued. While substitute Joseph Efford snatched at his volley after Shields teed him up with a well weighted cross.

Lamie wasted another great opportunity when he could only head the ball into the ground from point blank range, having been picked out by another Morris set-piece.

Facing knock-out, a now ragged looking Motherwell created only half chances through Morris and Slattery before Mata netted Sligo’s second.