Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has claimed that "valuable lessons" were learned following yesterday's fake bomb scare, which resulted in the team's final Premier League match of the season against Bournemouth being abandoned.

Old Trafford was evacuated shortly before kickoff on Sunday after a mobile phone with wires attached to a gas pipe was found in one of the men's toilets in the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand.

The bomb squad carried out a controlled explosion, but it was later confirmed by the police that the device was accidentally left behind by a security firm following a recent training exercise for sniffer dogs.

United launched an investigation into the blunder and found that the contractor had "signed the device as having been recovered along with the 13 other devices at the end of the exercise".

The club have also stated that the fake bomb was not detected by sniffer dogs during a routine search prior to the match because the device found did not contain any explosives.

In a statement, Woodward said: "The safety of the fans is our number one aim at every event we host at Old Trafford. Overall, I'm proud of how our staff responded. Once a live situation was identified, the club and police had no option but to treat the matter as a potential terror threat - we could not have assumed it was a training exercise error. Presented with the same situation in the future, we would take the same action.

"We have worked very closely with the police and counter-terrorism specialists for many years now and enjoy their support on a daily basis. For tomorrow's rearranged match against Bournemouth, we are working closely with Greater Manchester Police to ensure that robust security measures continue to be of the highest priority.

"We are conducting a detailed evaluation with the help of the police and will share our findings across the rest of the game. Valuable lessons will have been learned from yesterday's events and it is important that those are shared with other stadium operators to ensure that the safety of the public remains the first duty of us all."

United have offered refunds to supporters who bought tickets for Sunday's match.