Munster head coach Clayton McMillan says he and his players have to "work" to get some supporters back on board, but the New Zealander is confident with their direction of travel, despite Saturday's 26-20 defeat to Glasgow Warriors.

The province let a 20-14 lead slip in the final quarter at Thomond Park, as they lost what McMillan described as an "arm-wrestle" against a powerful Scottish side.

Despite the defeat, there were clear positives in the performance, notably through 21-year-old scrum-half Ben O'Donovan, and new signing Kieran Brookes.

A modest crowd of just over 11,000 turned up at Thomond Park for what should have been an attractive fixture, with a 5.30pm kick-off against one of the league's best sides.

And the Munster coach acknowledged they are in the process of repairing the relationship with some fans after a chaotic season last year.

"I think for the people that were here, I hope that they saw something in the team to be optimistic about," McMillan (below) said on Saturday night.

"After last year, we've got a bit of work to do to earn their dollars and cents to come buy tickets and come along and support this team."

A list of issues dogged the province in the second half of last season. On the pitch, they missed out on the knockout stage of the Champions Cup, and suffered a demoralising Challenge Cup last-16 defeat to Exeter Chiefs, while they needed a tense final day win against the Lions to secure a play-off spot in the URC.

Off the field, the major controversy was the appointment of Roger Randle as attack coach in April, before the province made a U-turn on that decision two weeks later after objection from a large section of supporters, and internal resignations on their professional games board.

McMillan is hoping the endeavour shown by his side against Glasgow will get even more floating voters back on side, ahead of a "very important" game against the Bulls this Saturday.

"We've been very active out in the community in the pre-season, and we hope that performances and wins will put bums on seats, but couldn't have asked for more from the crowd that were there today.

"I think they did a great job for us," McMillan added.

The Munster boss was enthused with many elements of his team's performance on Saturday, but he admits turning a performance into a result against the Bulls next week is now "very important", in another home game at Thomond Park.

"We want to win. I think in this competition, a good starting point is to win your home games, and we didn't quite manage that today.

"We're grateful that we walk away with a bonus point. And what we know is that in eight months' time, all of those bonus points, winning ones and losing ones, all add up.

"So I'm grateful that we took away a point. We pushed a quality team hard, and there's no shame in losing, albeit we don't want to at home. But there's green shoots there, I think.

"We've been clear around what we want to improve over the summer – the scrum, our maul, our phase, our attack. There's been lots of subtle changes, and if we park the disappointment of losing and focus on what I thought were the positives, there's a lot to be optimistic about.

"I wouldn't be a happy man if we lost two at home, so a massive, massive challenge [against the Bulls].

"They're big men, but they've still got two arms and two legs, and at home we've got to make it tough for them, he added.

The province's attack, particularly off setpieces, was sharp in the opening hour, in large part due to the energy brought by 21-year-old scrum-half O'Donovan.

The New Zealander (below), who is Irish qualified, joined Munster in the final third of last season on an academy deal, but that was soon promoted to a senior contract after a series of good cameos off the bench.

"He's a kid that came through the New Zealand pathway, played New Zealand Under-20, so he's a kid that's actually got talent, and he probably just sat in New Zealand and assessed the people that maybe were blocking his pathway to professional rugby.

"Given that his Dad is Irish and he's Irish qualified, he took a calculated risk, a brave one I think for a young man to come over here and try his luck with and not only [earn] an academy contract, but he made every post a winner at the back end of last year.

"I think he's really benefited from having a full pre-season, he would have come to us a little bit underdone last year.

"He's a great acquisition, he's level-headed and I think with more games under his belt we'll start to see his running game come into into play, which would have been one of his strengths back in New Zealand," McMillan said.

The province will assess a couple of injuries picked up in the game, in particular full-back Mike Haley, who limped out midway through the first half on Saturday, while hooker Diarmuid Barron failed an initial head injury assessment before half-time.

Second row Edwin Edogbo remains a couple of weeks away from being available, while tighthead prop Jack Aungier should be "back in the mix" to make his competitive debut after tweaking his back in training.

Tom Ahern could also return, with McMillan revealing he was unavailable this week after needing stitches in his hand, after cutting himself slicing an apple.

"Yeah, when it rains, it pours," the coach said, with a wry smile.