Saints recovering ahead of European push

Craig Harrison has told The New Saints players to "rest and recover" after a long season ahead of returning to training next month to prepare for another European campaign.

Saints, who wrapped up their season with a 1-0 victory at Barry Town United last weekend, made it five JD Cymru Premier titles in a row after finishing 22 points clear as champions.

The Park Hall club's players will now enjoy a break before beginning preparations for the 2026-27 season.

Head coach Harrison said: "They need to rest and recover, that's the big thing, that's key. It's been a long season again, so everyone needs to rest and recover physically, mentally and be prepared.

"We're back in training on May 21, first Champions League game is July 7/8, so we need to be ready for it."

Midfielder Leo Smith, who made his first start for TNS last Saturday since suffering an ACL injury during a Uefa Champions League qualifying match last July, wants Saints to enjoy a European run next season when they return from their break.

He helped Saints make history during the 2024-25 campaign when they became the first JD Cymru Premier club to progress to the league phase of a European competition, facing the likes of Fiorentina and Panathinaikos in the Uefa Conference League.

Smith said: "There's a couple of new players that haven't experienced what we had in Europe a couple of seasons ago, but we all want the same thing.

"We all want to succeed and we all want to make sure that as a club that we do succeed and we go through the qualifying rounds into the actual competition as well.

"We want to have a nice time off, but make sure that we're ready to come back firing."

The Saints will be aiming to replicate their success in Europe two years ago - rather than what unfolded last summer.

Two years ago they managed to become the first domestic Welsh side to make it through to the group stages of a tournament, when they qualified for the Conference League.

They picked up a victory over Astana and they were pushing for qualification to the play-off round right up until the final game of the group/league phase campaign.

They were credible performances away in Ireland but they were unable to get through.

However, their achievements were a big boost for the Welsh domestic game.

But last season it was a different story.

They suffered a narrow two leg defeat to North Macedonian side Shkendija in the Champions League, before suffering the same fate against Luxembourg side Differange in the second qualifying round for the Conference League.