‘You’ve got to score’ - Craig Harrison’s verdict after TNS Champions League exit

Craig Harrison admitted The New Saints paid the price for not taking their chances as they crashed out of the Uefa Champions League.

TNS exited Europe’s premier club competition at the first qualifying round stage after a 2-1 home defeat to Sabah, losing 4-1 on aggregate across the two legs.

The Saints started brightly as they looked to produce a remarkable comeback and overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit, but found themselves four goals down on aggregate by half-time after conceding twice before the break.

Boss Harrison said: “We started the game really well. I thought in the first 20 minutes we had a couple of chances.

“When you know football at this level, when it’s so tight and you’re playing against such good teams, you've got to score when you're on top. We didn't score.

“They've scored a goal against the run of play. It's a great goal. They're very quick on the counter-attack, they have very quick players, very athletic players.

“Ultimately, that knocked the wind out of our sails. But even more so, the second before half time was really disappointing.

“So from that point of view, we were gutted that we couldn't come in - at least if it was three, you still get the next goal and you've still got an opportunity - but at four it was probably the tie over.

“But credit to the boys. Credit to the boys, we spoke to them at half-time and said: ‘Right, let's not feel sorry for ourselves’.

“We can't go under and we've got to try and win the second half. And if we can do that and we don't get any injuries, don't get any suspensions, we get good minutes and we'll be good and ready to go to Estonia next week.”

Joy-Lance Mickels put Sabah ahead midway through the first half before Rahman Dashdamirov doubled the visitors’ advantage on the stroke of half-time.

Josh Lock fired home a late consolation on his Champions League debut, but the Azerbaijan Premier League champions proved too strong over the two legs.

Despite the defeat, TNS remain in European competition. They now drop into the second qualifying round of the Uefa Conference League, where they will face Estonia’s Flora Tallinn.