Bala Town and TNS will look to restore pride back into Welsh domestic football as they target a place in the Europa League.
Bala travel to Malta to face Valletta in the first qualifying round tonight while TNS host Slovakian side MSK Zilina. Both clubs will be looking to put some respectability back into the Welsh game after Barry Town’s embarrassing 5-1 Champions League defeat to NSI Runavik in the Faroe Islands.
Bala manager Colin Caton will be hoping the Lakesiders improve on their preliminary round defeat to Tre Fiore in 2018.
“We had a lot of stuff said about us the last time we qualified and played Tre Fiori of San Marino and it was rightly so that we got criticised,” Caton said.
“We weren’t good enough and gave away two silly mistakes and they just parked the bus and they were hard to break down.
“We can’t afford to make the mistakes that we’ve made in away legs, so it’s crucial that everybody is switched on.
“It’s crucial that we perform and deliver – it’s no good talking about it. We’re due a bit of luck.
“We’ve worked so hard to get to this position and we don’t want to be just happy qualifying for the Europa League.”
TNS face a side with impressive recent European pedigree and manager Scott Ruscoe is expecting a tough battle Oswestry.
“They will be coming over here positive, probably with a little bit of arrogance as well,” Ruscoe said of MSK Zilina. “They will think ‘it’s the Welsh league, we’ll dominate possession and sort these out’. That’s what tends to happen.
“I will say that the Macedonian champions came over here and we nearly got the biggest turnaround in European football, they were 5-0 up and a few more minutes we’d have got to 5-5.
“That’s not me being bullish, it’s just saying they won 4-0 and we coped very well at home. So if they underestimate us we’ll be ready for them.”
