It was a miserable night for Welsh sides Llanelli and New Saints in the Europa League as both sides crashed out at the first hurdle.

Standing on the brink of history before the games, Llanelli held a 1-0 lead over Scottish Premier League side Motherwell from the first leg but hopes of a famous victory were quickly dashed as early strikes from John Sutton and a second half effort from Jamie Murphy spared new ‘Well manager Jim Gannon’s blushes and ensured a safe passage through to the second qualifying stage.

Meanwhile New Saints tried to make it past the first qualifying round for the first time in eleven attempts and having taken an early lead against Icelandic side Fram Reykjavik thanks to Steve Evans, they surrendered the lead and lost 2-1 on the night, 4-2 on aggregate.

The Northern Irish contingent faired even worse with Martin O’Neill’s former club Lisburn Distillery suffering a 6-0 mauling by FC Zestafoni of Georgia, 11-1 on aggregate, while last season’s Irish Premier League runners-up Linfield were comprehensively outplayed in their second leg tie by Randers as the Danes ran out 3-0 winners on the night to complete a 7-0 aggregate win.

Republic of Ireland outfit Sligo Rovers were desperately unlucky not to overturn a 2-1 deficit against KS Vlaznia. Although the Albanian’s netted early on, they were reduced to ten men in the 79^th minute and Alan Keane pulled a goal back with five minutes remaining. As Rovers tried to force extra time, Conor O’Grady was sent off and any hopes of leveling the tie on aggregate vanished.

New Saints 1-2 F Reykjavik (2-4)

Linfield 0-3 Randers (0-7)

KS Vlaznia 1-1 Sligo Rovers (3-2)