Shropshire Star

Set-piece goals leave The New Saints up against it

Two headed goals from towering striker Paul Onuachu saw FC Midtjylland take a firm grip of their Europa League tie against The New Saints at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Published

The Nigerian struck twice inside the first half-hour to put the classy Danes in the box seat for next Thursday’s return leg of the third qualifying round tie, writes John Bridgwater.

Oswestry-based Saints worked tirelessly throughout, but were up against it after falling behind on just nine minutes when the 6ft 7in Onuachu headed home from a left wing corner.

The Danes bossed possession throughout as the Saints sat deep, looking to frustrate, and went close to a second when Gustav Wikheim failied to capitalise on another good opening when shooting weakly at goal.

The Welsh Premier champions – with Simon Spender and Dean Ebbe back in the starting line-up – looked a threat on the counter-attack, but failed to capitalise on a couple of promising positions.

Jamie Mullan forced a low save from keeper Jesper Hansen after linking with Ebbe, and the winger then fired straight at Hansen after the Saints had dithered from a promising position following a quick break upfield.

However, Scott Ruscoe’s men fell further behind to another corner on 27 minutes, this time from the right, with the ball being nodded back into the goalmouth for Onuachu to head in from point-blank range.

Midtjylland continued to rule the roost in the second period, with Nigerian target man Onuachu having another header saved low down by Paul Harrison to deny him a hat-trick.

TNS worked hard to close down their visitors, breaking quickly at times without seriously troubling Hansen in the visitors’ goal.

It could have been 3-0 late on, but Harrison made a smart low save to deny advancing sub Mayron George.

Although well beaten, the Saints could take heart from their efforts, but face a massive task in Denmark next week if they are to overturn the two-goal deficit.

Teams

The New Saints: Harrison, Routledge, Spender, Marriott, Cabango, Redmond (Nembhard 84) Edwards, Hudson, Holland (Byrne 79), Mullan, Ebbe (Cieslewicz 69). Subs not used: Seargeant, Draper, Clark, Roberts.

FC Midtjylland: J Hansen, Munksgaard, K Hansen, Nicolaisen, Dal Hende (Anderson 60). Wikheim, Sanneh, Duelund, Poulsen, Mabil (Okusun 60), Onuachu (George 79) Subs not used: Sparv, Korcsmar, Ottesen, Onyeka.

Referee: Peter Kralovic (Slovakia)