The New Saints have proved the doubters wrong heading into Conference League finale

The Saints put in another battling display against European giants Panathinaikos at Shrewsbury on Thursday evening - going down 2-0 after a goal in each half.

Due to their victory over Astana and their good goal difference, they remain in the hunt to progress if they can win at Celje next week and results go for them in a handful of other games.

It is a slim chance, but manager Craig Harrison insists that the fact they are still in with a shout of qualifying is nothing short of a superb achievement.

He said: "We need a result but we could creep in, six points could be enough because of having a reasonably good goal difference.

"We have had no hammerings and as we speak stranger things have happened.

"We've taken it to the last game and it is a huge opportunity for us, it is still all to play for.

"It is a huge achievement because I do actually believe a lot of people would have seen the drawn and thought they are not going to get any points and suffer some batterings.

"It can happen, I think Fiorentina won seven tonight and if you open up you can get beat three, four and five."

The fact the Saints are still in with the possibility of qualifying, after facing such a tough draw is some achievement for the Cymru Premier champions.

Buoyed by losing just 2-0 to last year's finalists Fiorentina, they would beat Astana in their opening home game before a narrow defeat against Shamrock Rovers in a game where they took the lead.

Defeats against Djurgarden and Panathinaikos have followed, but the Saints have remained in every game and even against the Greek giants they had chances to get back into the tie.

Harrison explained that their achievements have been all down to the game plans they have put in place and executed - as they have attempted to strike a balance between winning games and not getting blown away.

"We had it with Ferencvaros in one of the qualifiers where we were out of it. As coaches and players we learned from that," explained the Saints' head coach.

"We always knew the gulf in some of the teams we were going to be playing against, we had to have strength and organisation in the team.

"Individually the boys have been brilliant because we knew that if we opened up and went toe to toe against some of these sides, we would end up losing 4-0 or 5-0.

"It isn't being negative it is just the facts, because you are up against lads who have hundreds of top level games under their belts, 50 international caps and they've played at World Cups.

"So we had to be realistic from our point of view to stay in games and they pick our moments wisely, and in this one we had chances.

"We didn't just roll over, we had opportunities and we have made their keeper make arguably the best save of the game and also make a handful of other saves.

"They were having to do some emergency defending at the end there, so that is pleasing. Aside from the result, we got the game plan near enough spot on."