THE New Saints have been told to take a second chance for European group stage qualification with both hands ahead of the date with destiny on Thursday.

Craig Harrison’s men travel to Lithuania to play Panaevezys in the UEFA Conference League Play-off round first leg – the deepest into European competition TNS have gone so far.

Victory will secure Wales’s first-ever domestic league group stage place after Saints narrowly missed European qualification last week with a 1-0 aggregate defeat by FC Petrocub, from Moldova, in the Europa League.

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This would have sealed group stage football but now Harrison is rallying his troops to follow his lead and quick themselves up for a crucial fortnight of football.

“I think there’s no option but to not pick the lads up,” he said.

“I am poor at letting things hang and I’m a pain in the backside.

“But if I’m not going to lead the lads, then no-one will because we’ve got no option.

“We’re sore after Petrocub but the lads will get it out of the way – they had a day off and we will be back to go again to face whatever is in front of us.

“We’ve made a head start on our analysis of them and I imagine one of my staff will go out to watch them before the game.

“We can’t sorry feel sorry for ourselves – we’ve got another opportunity.”

Harrison admitted his side missed playmaker Ryan Brobbel against the Moldovans but thinks the Northern Irishman will have some part to play in the Conference League tie.

Harrison said: “It’s not being disrespectful to the other players but Ryan possibly could have made a difference because he sees that pass that most don’t.

“He trained before the game but wasn’t right with his groin but we’ve got 10 days now between this and the next game and hopefully he will be fit for the first leg and if not, definitely the second leg.”

Harrison admitted he found the defeat against Petrocub hard to take but with the league campaign underway with a 4-1 win over Flint Town, he is embracing that second chance.

“I’m bitterly disappointed – it’s a kick in the you-know-whats,” he said.

“The boys are too but you know, we have another opportunity and that doesn’t happen much in football.

“We can learn from this game and be better, and we have another opportunity.

“It’s so important that we don’t let our heads go down – I am the worst for it when things don’t go well and not a nice person to be around thinking about the ‘what ifs’.

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“We can’t do that – it’s another opportunity and we have to take the positives and the negatives from the game and apply them, which we have done well.

“We didn’t have many gilt-edged opportunities just a few where on our day our top players put them away.

“We have another tie that we have the chance to win.”