Scott Ruscoe is confident his side have what it takes to get through next week’s second leg tie of their Europa League qualifier against Lincoln Red Imps.

TNS won the first leg of their tie last night 2-1 at the Venue, thanks to a late goal from centre back Blaine Hudson.

The Saints now travel to Gibraltar next week, knowing that a clean sheet will put them through.

Speaking after the game, Ruscoe admitted the away goal for Red Imps was frustrating to take, but he remains confident they will progress to the next round.

He said: “Always nice to win, but I wasn’t happy about the away goal that they’ve got. We would’ve liked a bigger margin ideally.

“It’s an improvement from last year when we got beat 2-1 at home, so it’s nice to win this time round, but like I say we could have been better.

“I’m confident we’ll get through, we always score goals and create chances, we’ve just got to be better defending set plays.”

That makes it two wins from three in against European competition this season for TNS, after last week’s 4-0 drubbing of Macedonian champions FC Shkendija.

Ruscoe said: “I wasn’t expecting to replicate last week’s performance because those levels are few and far between, but I did think we looked a little bit off it tonight in spells.

“I told the lads to keep their heads up, it was a good win, you don’t have to win every game by four or five goals – it’s sometimes the level of the performance rather than the result that is most pleasing.

“We’re the far better side. They had two chances and scored one that they should never have scored, and Paul’s saved the one at the end, they haven’t really troubled us all game – they looked decent in possession at times, but there’s nothing that will trouble us too much.

“I think some of our lads get frustrated if things don’t always go their way, but it’s never going to be like that – this is the Europa League, we’re up against a side that wins the league nine times out of 10.”

The Saints travel to Gibraltar this week ahead of Thursday night’s second leg at Victoria Stadium.

TNS’ potential opponents in the next round will be revealed on Wednesday when FC Midtjylland play out their second leg tie against FC Astana.

The score in that game is also 2-1, with Astana ahead on the scoreboard after the first game.