THE New Saints boss Anthony Limbrick believes his side are still in the tie despite being second best in their UEFA Conference League defeat in Iceland.

Two penalties in either half from Kristall Ingason were enough to give Vikingur Reykjavik a cushion going to into the second qualifying round second leg in Oswestry on Tuesday.

But Limbrick was also realistic about how his side were outplayed by the Icelandic champions and fellow Champions League dropouts, but insisted the second penalty, for a fair challenge by Josh Dask, should never have been given.

"We were playing against a very good attacking side, we knew their threats and I thought they were excellent tonight," he said.

"We changed our defensive structure which helped us in the game and when you look at it, it was two penalties – one was a penalty, the first one but the second one, there is not one person in the stadium and on their side of the pitch that thinks that's a penalty.

"That's including their players – it should only be 1-0 but on the balance of play, it could have been a lot more because they played very well and created a lot more than we did.

"But we are still in the tie and it's going to be a much different game on Tuesday – it will be.

"We are good at home and we can win at home, there's no doubt about it.

"But the second penalty was never a penalty and it's clear our player wins the ball and while Ingason is a top player, he fell over.

"I'm not going to talk about the referee because I'd rather talk about the game which was fine in terms of overall decisions.

"There was no doubt on the first penalty as we were wrong side of the player.

"But we have to stock of our performance and we are still in the game at 2-0 and we'll be putting in place to score and get back in the tie.

Limbrick gave debuts to Dask and former Shrewsbury man Josh Daniels with veteran midfielders Jon Routledge and Ryan Brobbel missing out.

He added: "The players who missed out may think they were unlucky and unfortunate but we might have to rotate again after tonight because it was a hi-tempo game.

"There was plenty of effort from players but me might have to make changes for Tuesday because it's a quick turnaround.

"The players who were rested came on and did very well."

Saints will be hoping for a turnaround at Park Hall on Tuesday (6.15pm).