Europa League: Lasley glad he escaped sending-off

Keith Lasley is challenged by Martin Rauschenberg. Motherwell let slip a two-goal lead in the first leg. Picture: SNS

The Fir Park outfit let slip a two-goal lead in the first leg, against the side who are unbeaten in their domestic league this term, despite new signing Josh Law scoring a double.

That was bad enough, but midfielder Lasley was firstly booked for handball to concede a penalty to allow Stjarnan back into the game. And when he was again penalised in injury time for tugging back substitute Rolf Toft to concede another spot-kick, the experienced skipper thought that Danish referee Michael Johansen was going to issue him with a second yellow card, which would have ruled him out of the second leg at the Samsung Vollurinn ground.

Lasley admitted: “At the time it was just initial disappointment at the way the penalty was conceded, but after it I probably looked back and I could have had a second yellow.

“It was one of those situations and I didn’t have a great night’s sleep after that. But it’s gone now and we just need to look forward and I’m certainly determined to bounce back from it on a personal level and try to help the team any way I can to progress.

“I just got myself in awkward positions and I was disappointed, but they created a couple of good chances outwith that and I don’t think 2-2 was an unfair  reflection in the game.

“To be fair to their players they weren’t looking for a second booking which I was glad about because that might have got the referee thinking. I think they were too busy celebrating the fact they had a penalty so late on.

“From being lucky to be here, I just hope to play a part in what’s hopefully going to be a good night for us. But thinking back there’s every possibility I could have been suspended for this and I would have been  gutted at that.”

Motherwell face a tricky second leg on Stjarnan’s artificial surface tomorrow – a pitch which is not even one of the newer versions which are popular in Scotland. But the 34-year-old won’t be using that as a reason if Motherwell don’t advance to face either Poles Lech Poznan or Nomme Kalju from Estonia.

He said: “We’re not looking to use the pitch as an excuse. We will just play the conditions as they are. We’ll get a chance to train on the pitch before the game so that will give us a feel for it.

“We just want to go out and win a game of football regardless of the surface and we believe we’re good enough to do it. We know we’re in a game and we just need to make sure we’re the better team on the night.”