Motherwell chief executive Alan Burrows has addressed several angry Celtic fans who claim they were 'locked out' of last weekend's Scottish Premiership clash with the Steelmen.
There were only 7,421 inside the 13,742 capacity Fir Park for Sunday's 4-0 defeat to the league leaders.
But the popular director has taken to Twitter to explain why this had to happen.
"We have three home stands, all of which have Motherwell season ticket holders, who have paid for their seat," said Burrows via a selection of tweets.
"They haven’t committed their cash to support the club to be shifted about when there’s a more financially convenient situation. Our club have previously taken that route in the past, and all it does is erode the belief in trying to build something bigger and deeper within our support. As it happens, we've got more season ticket holders now than we've ever had at any point in our 136-year history.
"A part of that is, in my view, is supporters genuinely believing that you make decisions with their best interests at heart, even if it's to the detriment of a short-term cash injection. It's a longer term project to grow our own supporter base and that means you have to make long-term calls.
"Ideally I'd be able to fit everyone in who wants to go to games, and people (home or away fans) wouldn't miss out."
Many fans have praised Burrows transparency with supporters as well as him putting the 'home support first'.
One fan replied saying, "In addition, and Alan might be able to advise if it is still the case, we have more Motherwell fans - season ticket and PATG, who attend other league fixtures and choose not to submit themselves to the games involving Glasgow clubs."
Burrows response was an interesting one which could explain why there were so many empty seats during Sunday's clash.
"Oh, absolutely. By far our lowest attended matches (from a home support point of view) are Rangers / Celtic games. It (ST attendance) was as low as 60% for the last one, would you believe (adjusted kick-off time do play a significant part in that too)."
Motherwell face a trip to Tannadice on Wednesday evening before back-to-back home games against Aberdeen.
