It was the worst of endings for Crusaders but the damage was done in Wales, said Stephen Baxter on his swansong as manager of the Shore Road team.
The Crues were knocked out of Europe on penalties by European debutants Caernarfon Town on Wednesday night at Seaview after almost pulling off a remarkable Houdini act.
Caernarfon won the first leg 2-0 against a sluggish visiting team last week and were again the better team in the first half of the second leg, scoring through Paulo Mendes on 24 minutes.
However the Hatchetmen changed tack at half time and scored twice within four minutes of the restart through Ross Clarke and Daniel Larmour, with Phil Lowry levelling the tie on 72 minutes.
A winning fourth goal eluded them but there was a huge shout for a penalty deep into extra time when Ryan Sears looked to have handled in the box, but French referee Heini Vidoy waved play on.
Both teams scored seven penalties apiece before Lewis Barr and Jordan Owens failed to score and Marc Williams beat Jonny Tuffey to claim an 8-7 win for the Welsh side.
“Going out on penalties is the worst, particularly in a tie this big,” said Baxter. “When it goes to penalties, somebody’s going to lose in a horrible fashion.
“We had that moment when the ball slipped to Ben Kennedy and I thought we might have knocked in the fourth goal that might have taken the tie away from them.
“When it goes to penalties it’s always going to be a lottery and I think in extra time both teams were slugging it out, there wasn’t a lot of quality in that last half an hour.
“But from our point of view we’ve probably lost the tie over there, losing 2-0 and not being in a position of strength coming into this game. 2-0 was a big, uphill task.
“The boys rallied hard and gave their lot in the second half but it wasn’t to be and we wish Caernarfon every success in their onward journey.”
The Crues played like lambs in the first leg and the first half of the second leg but came out like lions after the break on Wednesday night and will rue a missed opportunity to progress in Europe.
The major talking point was that penalty claim in the 118th minute of play when Sears looked to have knocked a high ball away from Owens at the back post.
“We were shouting for a penalty. I’m not sure, from my angle I couldn’t see it but the whole stadium was up for it and the players were up for it,” added Baxter.
“We don’t unfortunately have VAR to say if it was or wasn’t, certainly there was a big shout for it.
“But you’ve got to look at it over 180 minutes of football and we gave ourselves an uphill task at home, particularly going a third goal behind. To have to go to extra time, to have to go to penalties is our own fault because we didn’t do enough in the tie.
“That’s European football so we just have to lick our wounds a little bit and congratulate others. They fought like crazy and we didn’t do enough in the first leg.”