Larne still have eyes on achieving group stage European football, says defender Shaun Want ahead of tonight’s clash in Kosovo

The Inver Reds would put in a gutsy performance over two legs against HJK Helsinki in Champions League qualifying, but would fall just short in extra-time as Want scored an unfortunate own goal to send the Finnish champions through 3-2 on aggregate.

However, attention has quickly turned for tonight's Europa Conference League second qualifying round against Kosovan side FC Ballkani as Larne are away from home for the first leg before returning to Solitude a week later.

Ballkani had beaten Ludogorets 2-0 in the first leg of Champions League qualifying but lost 4-0 in the reverse fixture in Bulgaria.

“As a player it’s good that we go again straight away as you don’t need to think too much about it," the Scottish native said.

“We were in on Sunday and thought straight away about going to Kosovo.

“We’ll take confidence from the performances against Helsinki but we should have more belief in ourselves.

“Two weeks ago we were probably a bit timid in the first half because it was our first time in the Champions League but over the two legs we’ve shown we can be confident and have a good go.

“The aim at the start was to try to make the group stages of one of the competitions.

"Obviously that would have been easier if we’d gotten through to the next round in the Champions League qualifiers but we’ll take any task ahead and do our best to get to the group stages for this club.”

Want, who joined Larne from Hamilton Academical last summer, believes the fact Helsinki are currently mid-season and had more competitive games under their belts was the only difference between the two sides across the 210 minutes.

“It was a hard one to take but we’ll evaluate it and I’m sure we’ll be proud of it," he added.

“The gaffer said at half-time we could get them on the back foot, which we were able to do in the second half and we always knew that a second goal would come - which it did.

“But overall, it was hard to take.

“The guy got across me and I went to block the shot and when I thought I had, I turned around and saw it trickle in. It felt like slow motion at the time but it was a hard one to take.

“We spoke after the game about fitness levels. HJK are 19 games into their season and that was our second competitive game.

“But we don’t want to make excuses. We showed we deserved to play at this level and this is our level to play in but it’s hard to put into words.

"We didn’t think there was anything between the two sides. If anything, we feel we deserved to go through, but sometimes that’s football.

“Sometimes decisions don’t go your way and we just have to dust ourselves down and be ready to go again on Tuesday."