A DEJECTED Scott Ruscoe admitted he was midway between positives and negatives after his The New Saints threw away a two-goal lead against FK Feroninkeli.

Goals in the second-half from Greg Draper and Aeron Edwards gave Saints a two-goal lead and one eye on passage to the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.

However, two goals in the last 10 minutes for the Kosovans was enough to seal a 2-2 draw, meaning that should TNS draw next week, they will need to score a minimum of two goals.

And Ruscoe knows his side can do better in their basics but still believes they were the better side over the first leg.

“It’s just disappointing because at 2-0 you think it’s job done,” said a frustrated Ruscoe.

“But we had to make enforced changes – we had players on the pitch who shouldn’t have been there, which is difficult.

“But you can’t moan about it as we’ve got a deep enough squad. I’ve now got to pick the lads up and get them in the mindset to go again and do the good things again.

“I did tell them that the nine cuts inside to put the ball in the box and the head it in, which is what they’ve done for the goal.

“We didn’t mark them well enough, we didn’t defend right but when we’re tired, that’s what we do. We dropped deep and that’s what we didn’t do.

“The positives is that we dominated the game – we were in charge throughout but I do think that we needed to be cuter on the ball, not rush and not have as many bodies rushing forward.”

Ruscoe believes his side failed to do the basics consistently, and wants thm to take a leaf out of the continental book when it comes to the cleverer parts of the game.

He added: “We needed to control possession, and we needed to take the sting out of the game. But we spent the last 15 minutes worrying that they might get an away goal, and they got two.

“I don’t think it was a penalty; I asked Simon Spender and he said it hit his chest and I didn’t like the way they constantly went down, claiming free kicks.

“It’s one where they were going down all over but we’ve got to be cuter at doing things like that to gain an advantage.”