Blair Spittal insists Motherwell have what it takes to win in Ireland and progress in the Europa Conference League.
But the former Partick Thistle and Ross County midfielder admits Sligo Rovers sucked them into frustrating areas in the 1-0 Fir Park defeat last night.
Aidan Keena’s 27th-minute strike currently separates the sides as Graham Alexander’s men prepare for a showdown at the Showground next Thursday evening.
But the 26-year-old says Motherwell did enough well that they can go into the second leg with confidence.
When asked if they did enough to win the tie, Spittal admitted: “Probably not. I think we made one mistake and got punished for it, but we probably didn’t push on enough to get ourselves back into the game.
“We created some good half-chances – balls into the box into areas, but we probably lacked a wee bit of cutting edge, which was quite frustrating.
“But it’s only half-time in the tie, so we just need to pick ourselves up for next week.
I think we have enough in us to go over there and win the tie.
“We’re still in pre-season, effectively, and it’s competitive action now, but we’re starting to get that sharpness back in the team.
“It’s only half-time in the tie, there’s no point in being down about it.
“We’re disappointed, but what’s the point in dwelling about it? We just need to be positive and take that into next week.”
Keena pounced on Bevis Mugabi’s slack passback and lobbed the ball over stranded Liam Kelly for Sligo’s winner, and only a terrific save from Luke McNicholas prevented Spittal from levelling with a fierce drive from around 25 years, towards the end of the first half.
But while Spittal feels the visiting keeper was on form, he admits Motherwell still could have done more to test him.
He said: “I thought I had scored, but the keeper played well tonight. It was one of those ones where we were restricted in the first half to shots from range and stuff like that, but the keeper played well and had a couple of nice saves in the second half as well.
“It’s important that in these sort of situations that we don’t allow ourselves to get frustrated.
“That’s what we ended up getting sucked into.
“But we need to be positive and try to take it into next week.
“I felt as though in the first half they came out the blocks and started quite aggressively, but the longer the first half went on we started moving them, and that was probably when we were getting joy, but without creating clear-cut chances.
“In the second half we probably didn’t do that enough and got sucked into crossing the ball into nothing areas for us, and getting frustrated.”
Spittal says the Steelmen must go over to Ireland and make things happen for themselves.
He said: “We need to take that patience that we showed in the first half in moving them and hopefully we can tire them out.
“We just need to make sure we go over there and take care of business.
“It’s going to be tough again, but we believe we have the quality in the dressing room that can go and do the job .”
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