A PORTHMADOG footballer has voiced his disappointment after The New Saints fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat in their UEFA Conference League tie against Shamrock Rovers on Thursday evening.

Despite taking the lead through Jordan Williams in the 14th minute, the home side hit back and went into the half-time break with the advantage.

Although they had a couple of chances in the second period, Craig Harrison’s side were unable to find an equaliser, leaving Dublin empty-handed as a result.

After a very impressive display in a 2-0 defeat against Italian giants Fiorentina in their opening fixture, TNS made history by becoming the first domestic Welsh club to win in the league or group stage of a major European competition courtesy of a 2-0 victory over Astana in Shrewsbury in their second game.

Hopes were high going into the third fixture at the Tallaght Stadium but it wasn’t to be on the night with the hosts determined to make up for missing out on the League of Ireland title to Shelbourne days earlier.

Leo Smith, who joined TNS from Caernarfon Town in July 2020, said the players were down after the result but they had to put it behind them and look ahead to the next games.

The 26-year-old said: “The lads are all down, it was a tough game against a really good side who moved the ball well.

“We limited the chances that they probably usually create but I feel that we didn’t quite do enough to win or maybe to get the goal to get a draw.

“It might be a factor that we were a bit tired having played a lot of games and that they wanted to prove a point after losing the league.

“But we will have to look back at the game and see where we went wrong and just move on to the next games and try to win all that we play.”

He added: “We knew they would start strongly but we also know that we can be a big threat with counter attacks and that worked well for us.

“It was a great start for us but unfortunately we didn’t do enough in the game to win.”

Looking ahead to the next fixture against Swedish side, Djurgården, at The New Meadow on Thursday, 28 November, he added: “We have to stay positive. The lads have worked hard for months now to get where we are and we gave a half decent performance I’d say but we now have to look forward.”

Blaenau Ffestiniog’s Sion Bradley was an unused substitute on the night.

After the Djurgården game, TNS host Panathinaikos on 12 December and the league phase ends with a trip to Slovenian side Celje on 19 December.