Uefa Conference League qualifiers: Glens ‘deserve huge credit’ after RFS loss – Devine

Glentoran manager Declan Devine said his side will “take huge confidence” into the second leg of their Conference League first round qualifier against RFS.

The Glens were narrowly defeated 2-1 by RFS during a tight first leg at the Oval with debutant Zeno Rossi breaking the deadlock before Martins Kigurs netted twice for the away side.

Devine’s side will now attempt to overturn the one-goal deficit when they travel to Latvia for the second leg on 16 July.

“All in all, a positive night, nobody wants to lose, it’s only half-time,” Devine told BBC Sport NI.

“I was super proud of the players and the effort that they’ve put in. Their two goals are huge slices of good luck in it. I thought we defended brilliantly and I thought hit them on the counter-attack. I thought our game plan worked really well.

“We were solid, we needed to be solid. We asked questions of them, especially late in the half, the second half. All the boys should take huge credit and confidence going into Latvia.”

It was a whirlwind day for Rossi, who it was announced had joined the east Belfast club just hours before the first leg.

The defender made a superb start to his debut and gave the Glens the lead in the tie after seven minutes.

“I think Zeno coming in for his debut, having trained with the team once, and scoring on his debut and putting on the performance that he put on, deserves huge credit,” Devine continued.

“He was the only one in our whole squad that has 90 minutes under their belts since probably the end of March.

“We’ve got to recover well. We’ve got to take confidence that they’re holding on for dear life at the end, trying to kill time. We have a huge travelling support when we’re going to Riga. Game on.”