By Josh Thomas
Cardiff Met’s Jordan Lam has admitted going out of the Europa League was “heartbreaking” after the students were agonisingly edged out by Progrès Niederkorn on Thursday night.
The Archers – the first student team from the UK to play in senior European competition – led 2-0 in the second leg and 2-1 on aggregate, but the Luxembourg side pulled a goal back and then clung on for victory in the preliminary round tie on away goals as it ended 2-2.
It was a desperately cruel end to the Welsh Premier League club’s European adventure, which has given the university the kind of publicity their marketing department could only dream about.
Mayron De Almeida’s second-half goal for the visitors means they now play Cork City in the first round.
Despite defeat, goalscorer Lam was full of praise for his side.
“It was gutting, to be fair,” he said. “But the boys should hold their head up. massively.
“We went with a game plan and we pulled it off for a bit.
“The boys were getting tired and obviously to get done like that at the end is heartbreaking. But all the boys went right towards the end and worked tremendously hard.”
Lam, who was making his first start for the club after resigning this summer, opened the scoring for the Archers inside the first few minutes.
“I was a bit nervous before coming in. I knew I was staring throughout the day and to come on and score early doors really helped us all settle the nerves and kicked us on.
“It’s what we wanted, our game plan was to try and get an early goal and then and try to hold them as best we could.
“I feel we did that. but they’ve got a lot of quality.”
With Lam being taken off just after the hour, it was Mael Davies, on as a substitute, who would win the hosts a penalty from which Dylan Rees scored to put Met ahead in the tie.
Lam added: “I was on the bench and we were all buzzing, we thought we were going to do it.
“We thought as soon as he scored that we could shut up shop and not let them break us down. But, unfortunately, they did.”
Despite the overall defeat Lam feels that his side have it in them to qualify for the Europa League for the second time at the end of the coming season.
“The boys’ belief is really high now. Obviously, getting into the Europa League has been a big boost and I feel we have the tools and the capability to do it again.
“That will be our big goal for next season and hopefully we will do it.
“Our pre-season is literally just around the corner, so it’s been good to come in for the Europa as we’ve all gelled as a team really well.
“We are all fit, it’s just about working on that and going head strong with the new season.”
The 24-year-old also paid tribute to the influence of Met director of football, Christian Edwards and what he has done for the university.
“He’s bought this club up right to the highest level I feel. He’s done tremendously well with all the players. It’s been a massive effort from him and all the boys have praised him a lot.”