Linfield remain positive ahead of a massive fortnight for club

And little wonder as despite exiting the competition 5-0 on aggregate they now face a two-game shootout against RFS to create their own piece of history.

The winners of this Europa Conference League play-off will go into the group stages of the tournament and boss David Healy says his players know how big this next fortnight is for the club.

“First and foremost I’m proud of the effort and attitude of the players,” he told the club website.

“It was tough temperatures to go and perform in.

“Conceding the early goal was disappointing, but to be fair to the players I thought we stuck at it.

“We kept the ball a lot better, particularly in the second half, they gave us a little bit more time in possession.

“Of course we wanted to come here and perform and win, but There was no point risking players tonight when we knew it was going to be a tough ask.

“I’m disappointed to lose the game, but these last couple of games we were extremely excited by and wanted to win.

“Having won the TNS game we now find ourselves with an opportunity next week and that was always going to be the big one for us.

“There’s a lot of positivity from the players.

“We’ve two big weeks ahead of us now and it’s a challenge that these players are going to be right up for.”