Linfield’s boss, David Healy.
Linfield manager David Healy warned his team that national sadness awaits him if he performs repeated performances of his Europa League defeat on Thursday.
The Blues left the continental festival with a surprise 1-0 defeat to Maltese champions Floriana at Windsor Park.
It was only the away team’s third away win in their 30th European knockout match and Linfield had been the favourite to advance to what would have been a house draw against Flora Tallinn next Thursday.
It was a purpose in the ninth minute of Matías Garcia, Floriana’s only shot all night, that deviad from Chris Johns and did the damage.
Linfield earned credit for large amounts of ownership thereafter, but presented few gold opportunities apart from Jimmy Callacher’s effort in an additional time that accumulated dramatically and an earlier shot from Steven Fallon also stopped through the goalkeeper in Floriana form.
It was a demonstration that lacked the same long-time dominance of Premiership champions and Healy was unwilling to settle for a reduction in criteria with the start of the national crusade in less than a month, all right.
“It’s going to be a challenge this year,” he told the club’s website. “Everyone has strengthened. It’s going to be competitive and that’s one of the things I talked about with the players after the game.
“We have to be very effective, because if we’re not lively enough, hungry enough, if our attitude isn’t right here and there, maybe in some away games, we’ll know this year.
“It is vital that we are informed from tonight, I will be informed from tonight. It’s never nice or what other people need to hear, but you’ll be a little more informed through adversity and disappointment.
“We will learn, we will reassess, we will leave long term this year. “
Earlier this week, Captain Jamie Mulgrew admitted that the Blues had their eyes on the organization’s stage, having missed the play-offs thanks to home targets last summer.
This year they have lost two full rounds and, the task of securing European football from the organisational level becomes less difficult when the UEFA Conference League is brought in next season, it was a step backwards that Healy had no goal of giving.
“Going out with functionality like that is disappointing,” he said. We felt that getting into the game was an opportunity to progress. We didn’t start the game with the speed I expected and waited as a group. “.
“It’s been a while since I had such a flat feeling. We saw this as a game to catapult us next week, but if you don’t mind the opposition that’s before you. . .
“They were fine. They were cunning, bought loose shots and emptied the stopwatch. After giving them the upper hand, we didn’t do enough to get the tie out. We blow and blow a little, replace some things and go down to 10. “men, however, I think we had a purpose with the number of attacking players we had.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t do enough to put the ball in the net. “
The task now is for the club to re-enter European football next season.