NEIL GIBSON said he was “immensely proud” of his players as Connah’s Quay Nomads went so close to progressing in Europe.
Nomads suffered late heartbreak twice as they lost out 2-0 to NK Bravo at Bangor’s Nantporth ground.
This meant Quay were defeated 2-1 on aggregate in the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.
Nomads’ boss Gibson told S4C’s Sgorio: “Obviously, immensely proud of the players in terms of the effort they gave.
“I felt we deserved probably a little bit more than what we got tonight.
“Disappointed, first reflection. I thought that, obviously, they are a full-time team.
“Their, probably, squad depth, being full-time told in the end a little bit.
“No excuses from us, because, you know, we were three or four minutes away from going through and then six minutes away from going into penalties.
“So, it’s just those fine little moments in games and, unfortunately, the luck didn’t quite go on our side today and, obviously, I’m not sure whether Bravo should have had a penalty in the first half, but I certainly felt we should have had one in the second half.”
Nomads went into Thursday evening’s match boasting a 1-0 lead from the first leg, courtesy of Ben Maher’s strike.
Quay defended brilliantly in the return encounter and they looked to be on the verge of heading into the second qualifying round.
However, with less than three minutes left, Nemanja Jakšić scored from close range as Bravo won 1-0 after 90 minutes to level the aggregate at one-apiece, meaning extra time.
Then, five minutes from the end of extra time, Slovenian international Matej Poplatnik grabbed the winner.
Gibson added: “Look, it’s really frustrating and sometimes, you know, good things happen to good people.
“I firmly believe in that and we worked really hard and I felt we deserved that little bit of luck and you’ve got to maybe question how that didn’t quite materialise to getting ourselves over the line.
“I felt that the players certainly deserved it, the staff certainly deserved it and that’s something that we’re going to have to sort of digest now over the next... week or so and see where we’re at going into the league season.
“Probably, you know, squad depth and the planning and the preparation at the start of pre-season in terms of numbers through the door probably cost us.”
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