David Healy laments worst performance out of four against Shelbourne as Linfield's league phase hopes are ended by Shelbourne
Linfield boss David Healy rued his side’s worst performance out of four games against Shelbourne as their dreams of league phase football in the Conference League were ended on Thursday night.
League of Ireland champions Shelbourne booked their spot in the league phase after comfortably seeing off Linfield 2-0 at Windsor Park.
Harry Wood and Ali Coote scored in the first half to seal a comprehensive 5-1 aggregate triumph following last week’s chaotic opening rubber in Dublin.
Linfield had already met Shelbourne in Champions League qualifying last month and narrowly lost out 2-1 on aggregate.
However, there was no close affair this time around as Healy rued the worst performance at the “most crucial point” against Shels.
"Disappointing. I talked before the game about how important it was that we got the first goal. We didn't look like that tonight," Healy told BBC Sport NI after the game.
"More frustrating is the manner that we conceded the [first] goal. We were aware of Harry Wood's movement. It's not as if we were going into the game blind. We were fully aware of his capabilities, his runs.
"You can probably look at it from a Shelbourne point of view and say it was a wonderful pass and a wonderful finish, which it probably was, but from our point of view we were well aware of that run and ball.
"We had seen it in the three games previously and we didn't deal with it tonight. Tonight was our worst performance out of the four games that we played but it was at the most crucial point. That's frustrating."
Whilst the damage was done inside the opening 45 minutes at the National Stadium, Healy credited his players for their second-half performance as they tried in vain to close the gap as best as possible.
He added: "The most important thing for me tonight is that we didn't fall apart in the second half.
"Going forward we got some of the younger players some more European experience which will benefit them long term.
"We all feel disappointed that we haven't grasped the opportunity but we'll respond in a positive manner like we always do and we'll try and put our best foot forward in the cup competitions and most importantly, our bread and butter, in our domestic league, where we feel we are more than a match for anyone."