PRIDE IN EUROPE THE AIM FOR TNS

THE NEW SAINTS will be looking to restore some pride on Tuesday night when they welcome Macedonian champions KF Shkendija to Park Hall for the second leg of their Champions League first qualifying round tie.

The Saints crashed to a 5-0 defeat in midweek – their heaviest European first leg defeat for 15 years.

The Welsh Premier League’s perennial powerhouses were simply outclassed in Skopje with Shkendija, inspired by Besart Ibraimi’s stunning four-goal salvo.

Barring a miracle, Shkendija will go on to face either Torpedo Kutaisi or Sheriff in the second qualifying round.

TNS would drop into the UEFA Europa League and go up against Lincoln Red Imps, of Gibraltar.

Ironically, Saints boss Scott Ruscoe played in the 5-0 defeat against Manchester City in the old UEFA Cup back in 2003 with this their biggest loss since.

And, although he acknowledged they were beaten by a better side, Ruscoe felt his players did not do themselves justice.

“I would say how good they were, but we weren’t great,” he said. “In the first half you could see the intensity, how sharp they were and how well they passed the ball.

“But they haven’t done anything that we haven’t seen them do before.

“All I asked at the start of the game was to match them for effort and intensity, everything that we do normally.

“We weren’t quite good enough on the night and were beaten by the better team.” Meanwhile, Connah’s Quay

Nomads have a mountain to climb in their UEFA Europa League first qualifying round tie with Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus after a 3-1 defeat in the first leg at Rhyl.

Callum Morris’ late penalty keeps the JD Welsh Cup holders in the tie but they now have their work cut out to overturn the deficit ahead of the second leg on Thursday night.

Despite that, Nomads boss Andy Morrison was proud of his players and felt the scoreline perhaps flattered Soligorsk.

“It was such a harsh result,” he said. “We’ve given a fantastic account of ourselves and I couldn’t be more proud of the lads.

“They [Soligorsk] are a good team, a proper outfit, and we knew the problems that they'd cause us.

“But we stood up to everything and we were more than a match for it.

“The hardest thing to take is the result because, like I say, that’s no reflection on the performance.”