David Healy: 'Critical mistakes' and 'moments that got away' led to Linfield's exit from Europe
Linfield manager David Healy confessed his side’s late loss in Europe was “a sore one” to take as the Blues bowed out at the first hurdle.
After trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Estonia, the Blues managed to level the tie on aggregate early doors in the return fixture as Ethan McGee’s looping header gave Linfield the lead.
However, the game ultimately turned on its head when McGee was then dismissed for handling the ball inside the box, allowing Olksandr Musolitin to equalise for Nomme Kalju after his initial penalty was saved by Chris Johns.
But Linfield replied yet again just four minutes after the restart when a long throw-in into the box wasn’t dealt with by the Estonians as substitute Kieran Offord scored with pretty much his first touch.
With the tie level, both teams knew the importance of striking next and it would prove to be heartbreak for Linfield as Mihhail Orlov’s stunning strike from outside the box sailed into the top corner inside the second minute of stoppage-time to dump the Blues out of the Conference League.
Reacting to the defeat on Linfield’s social media platforms, boss David Healy said: "It's a sore one.
"We started with what we craved.
"We craved the early goal to get us back into the tie.
"We got that but self-destructed with the mistake that we made and then you follow that up with another, which is disappointing.
"I always believed that if we got in 1-0 at half-time, shooting down into the bottom end where we always score, which we did even though we were down to 10 men.
"Frustration, disappointment.
"But you can't legislate at times for critical mistakes that we made tonight.”
Healy remarked how his side deserved at least to take the tie into extra-time but knows they were always vulnerable to a late sucker-punch after failing to make the most of entries into their opponents’ box.
He added: "We changed it at half-time which was no reflection on Dylan (Wells) and Adam (Frizzell) as we wanted to go with a little bit more legs in Kieran (Offord) and Dane (McCullough) coming on in the wide areas.
"And we got that with the goal.
"There were one or two little moments after that and I felt they didn't cause us too many problems...which is a credit to the players with 10 men.
"There were a few other moments.
"Kirk (Millar) put a few dangerous balls in, there were ricochets in and around the six-yard box that we didn't capitalise on.
"They were the moments that slightly got away from us because I don't even think it was a chance they scored from.
"It was more a half chance.
"I think we at least deserved to take the tie into extra-time and, if it goes there, we would have probably freshened it up a little bit.
"Hand on heart I can't fault the players, I can't fault their effort, and it's just disappointing to go out.”
Nomme Kalju’s reward for their progression is a meeting against League of Ireland side Shelbourne next.