GORDON Chisholm, the Queen of the South manager, insists making a piece of Scottish football history is not beyond his players when they travel to Denmark for the second leg of their Uefa Cup second qualifying round tie against Nordsjaelland.
Last season's Scottish Cup runners-up were the architects of their own downfall in last night's first leg in Airdrie, cheaply conceding the first-half goals scored by Benjamin Kibebe and Patrice Bernier which leaves them with a 2-1 deficit to recover in Denmark on 26 August.
No Scottish club has ever won a European tie after losing the first leg at home, but while Chisholm was exasperated by the manner of his team's defeat last night he remained bullish about their prospects of turning it around in the return fixture.
"It is going to be difficult, no-one would doubt that," said Chisholm. "Difficult yes, but not impossible. The way we went about in the second half tonight, the tie is not dead. I felt we deserved a draw tonight. It wasn't our football or attacking play that killed us, it was our defending.
"I'd been banging on for three or four days before this game about the need to concentrate at the back. I told our goalkeeper and defenders that it was about keeping a clean sheet tonight, nothing else. Anything else was a bonus. We definitely shot ourselves in the foot, giving away a goal in the first two minutes and then another soft one after we had equalised. You just can't do that at this level."
Morten Wieghorst, the Nordsjaelland coach, felt his team should have put the tie completely out of Queen of the South's reach but the former Celtic and Dundee midfielder was nonetheless satisfied with the position they have put themselves in ahead of the second leg.
"With a bit more composure in the second half, when I thought we were a bit sloppy with the ball, we would have killed the tie," said Wieghorst. "We are in the driving seat but we still have a job to do to finish it off. I will make sure the players don't think it is all over. I underlined to them before the game that it was important not to underestimate Queen of the South. People back home were saying we just had to turn up and win, because they hadn't heard of this team, but I knew any Scottish team would battle hard.
"Overall, I'm very pleased with the result. Getting the first goal after two minutes was a real bonus, it was something I didn't expect to happen from a corner kick against a Scottish team who are good in the air."
MATCH REPORT: Queen of the South 1-2 NordsjaellandThe full article contains 467 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
