Mixed feelings for Collins

Shelbourne’s assistant coach Eamonn Collins expressed feelings of disappointment and pride after his side bowed out of the UEFA Cup first following their 2-0 loss to Lille in the return leg on Thursday night.

The eircom League champions had completed a dramatic comeback in the previous leg to level 2-2.

But two first-half from Milenko Acimovic and Matt Moussilou at Lille’s Metropole Arena sealed the end of their presence in the European competition.

Collins said: “I am very disappointed obviously, it’s never nice to lose that sort of game.

“Nothing went wrong really, we just fell on a very good Lille side, they deserved to win.”

The two goals came very early in the math – in the 17th and 27th minutes – and Collins admitted it was a bad blow for his side.

“Any goal would have been a killer for us anyway but the fact they came so early in the game made it far more difficult for us.

“But as a whole Lille were really impressive as a group.

“However all the supporters, the staff and the players can be proud of what we have achieved as a group.”

Meanwhile Lille coach Claude Puel praised his side’s ability to remain concentrated and prevent Shelbourne from fighting back.

He said: “We managed the match well until the end.

“Two weeks ago it seemed we felt superior to them and we displayed a very poor second half because of that.

“This time we remained focused, we worked a lot on concentration during the few days prior to the match.

“Shelbourne were dangerous all the time and could have come back into the match anytime.

“But we held on and displayed the match of our dreams.”