The New Saints were knocked out of this season’s UEFA Champions League following a 2-1 second leg defeat against Sabah at Park Hall in the first qualifying round.
The Novira Cymru Premier champions were beaten 2-0 away in Azerbaijan last week, meaning they ultimately suffered a 4-1 aggregate loss to exit the competition at the first hurdle for the fourth time in five years.
Craig Harrison made one change from the first leg as Ryan Brobbel replaced Ben Clark in the starting XI and it certainly felt like TNS had a point to prove in the opening exchanges. Jordan Williams perhaps should have done better with a header he nodded straight at the goalkeeper, before Rhys Hughes volleyed over the bar.
However, Sabah took the lead on the night and made it 3-0 on aggregate when Aaron Malouda cut the ball back for Joy-Lance Mickels to fire home on 28 minutes.
The tie was then ultimately put to bed three minutes before half-time when TNS failed to deal with Tymoteusz Puchacz’s corner and Rahman Dashdamirov turned the ball home at the back post.
Playing for pride after the break, the Saints saw opportunities go begging from Hughes, Danny Davies and Williams, before eventually getting on the scoresheet in the 89th minute. Substitute Josh Lock marked his European debut by pouncing on a loose ball in the box and coolly slotting into the corner with a first-time effort.
TNS will now meet Flora Tallinn in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League, after the Estonian side were beaten 5-4 on aggregate by Iberia 1999 of Georgia in their UEFA Champions League first qualifying round tie.
“We’re disappointed as we got beat and we don’t often get beat,” Craig Harrison said after Tuesday’s defeat. “It was a vast improvement from the performance out there [in the first leg] from an attacking point of view. But we’ve given away two really silly goals in the first half against the run of play, in my opinion.
“They [Sabah] are a good team. They’ve countered very quickly on numerous occasions and we just couldn’t live with their pace in wide areas in the first half. Anyone who knows anything about high level football knows that you’ve got to score when you’re on top and we didn’t. We got punished for that.”
