Europa League: Manager David Healy proud after Linfield's 'incredible journey'
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Linfield manager David Healy wants his squad to take a "huge amount of belief" into the rest of the season after their "incredible journey" saw them fall just short of the Europa League group stage.
The Irish League champions drew 4-4 with Qarabag on aggregate in their play-off but lost out on away goals.
"The players have shown fight, quality and togetherness and we want to capitalise on that," explained Healy.
"It's been a great experience and I'm very proud but we want more of it."
Linfield travelled to Baku with a 3-2 advantage from the first leg in Belfast but goals from Jaime Romero and Abdellah Zoubir proved enough to secure the Azerbaijani champions' passage to the group stages, Shayne Lavery grabbing a late consolation.
Healy's side produced a spirited performance and the former Northern Ireland international told the Linfield FC website after the match that his emotions were a mixture of pride and disappointment.
"I'm proud of the players, proud of the staff - how we went about the experience and how everyone played their part - but disappointed, gutted to lose in the manner that we did," said the Linfield boss.
"I'm immensely proud of how we set about our task. We wanted to stay in the game - it was important that we did that so that we were in a position to give it a right go in the last 15 minutes.
"To get done with a sucker punch for their second goal, which looked clearly offside, is disappointing. Yes, they had a few chances and Rohan (Ferguson) had to make a few saves but overall it was hugely positive from our perspective.
"We knew before the game that we had players on the bench who could come on and create opportunities. We did that so to concede the goal in the manner we did is frustrating.
"It has been an incredible seven or eight weeks for me personally and I know the staff and the players never expected to be 15 minutes away from scoring a goal which would have put us in the group stages."
Linfield out of Europa League on away goals to Qarabag
The Blues manager expressed his satisfaction over how his side "held their shape and were disciplined and organised" throughout the second leg and is now turning his attention to their defence of the Irish Premiership title.
"We rode our luck on occasions, we knew we would have to do that, but credit to the players that we were still in the game with 15 or 20 minutes to go.
"Now it's back to the bread and butter of the league and finding out if we are good enough to retain our title.
"We will do our best to get our season up and running domestically and I hope we can take a huge amount of belief going forward."