Sligo Rovers manager John Russell declared himself "unbelievably proud" after watching his team claim a famous away win at Motherwell in the Europa Conference League.Aidan Keena scored the only goal of the game in the first half as the SSE Airtricity League club secured a first-leg win over the Scottish top flight outfit at Fir Park in the second qualifying round on Thursday.It marks one of the Bit o' Red's most memorable results and Russell paid tribute to his players."It's a massive win for Sligo," he said."It's only our fifth European win.
We had only won three before this season and now we have beaten Bala and Motherwell away."Our defensive structure limited Motherwell to very few chances.
I felt we deserved the win, made a couple of chances and should've had a penalty late on."We're happy with the performance but it's only halfway in the tie."The second leg will take place at the Showgrounds next Thursday at 7pm.Russell's Motherwell counterpart Graham Alexander dismissed suggestions his side lacked sharpness in the first competitive game of their season against a Sligo team which had 25 games under their belt in all competitions prior to kick off."I think we did more than enough to win it," he said."The goal speaks for itself.
It was an obvious mistake but an honest one. That gave them something to protect. They sat deep at times but we still created enough chances to win the game but didn't take them."But it's only half-time.