Russell wants Sligo squad to embrace the European occasion against Motherwell

Sligo Rovers manager John Russell has urged his players to embrace the occasion as the Bit O'Red welcome Motherwell to The Showgrounds on Thursday night.

Russell’s side lead 1-0 on aggregate against the Scottish top-tier side and will be looking to progress to the third qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.

The manager believes that his team will be regarded as underdogs despite the first leg lead, however, he expects the confidence gained from the European experience so far to stand to his side for the second leg in front of a sell-out 3,700 crowd in Sligo.

"The focus for us is performing well on the night," said Russell, speaking to RTÉ Sport ahead of the game.

"We’ll be the underdogs even though we are winning 1-0 in the tie. Motherwell will be hungry to try to turn the game around, and for us it’s about how we perform on the night and how we implement our game-plan.

"We know the threats that they bring, they may make some changes to personnel or shape but we’ll be well prepared and prepped to deal with all that.

"It’s about embracing the occasion for our players. They want to play in Europe and they want to play in these big occasions and I think it’s important they come into the game feeling confident and I think we are in a good place as a group for the moment."

Rovers find themselves in a similar position from the first round when they took a one-goal lead into the second leg against Welsh league side Bala Town, however, things did not go completely to plan and Russell’s men needed penalties to secure safe passage to set up the tie with Motherwell.

Russell felt that some players were affected by the occasion in the last round, but ultimately feels that the hard-fought victory will stand to his side for the