The Crues were knocked out of Europe on penalties by European debutants Caernarfon Town on Wednesday night at Seaview after almost pulling off a remarkable Houdini act. Caernarfon won the first leg 2-0 against a sluggish visiting team last week and were again the better team in the first half of the second leg, scoring through Paulo Mendes on 24 minutes. However the Hatchetmen changed tack at half time and scored twice within four minutes of the restart through Ross Clarke and Daniel Larmour, with Phil Lowry levelling the tie on 72 minutes.
A winning fourth goal eluded them but there was a huge shout for a penalty deep into extra time when Ryan Sears looked to have handled in the box, but French referee Heini Vidoy waved play on. Both teams scored seven penalties apiece before Lewis Barr and Jordan Owens failed to score and Marc Williams beat Jonny Tuffey to claim an 8-7 win for the Welsh side. “Going out on penalties is the worst, particularly in a tie this big,” said Baxter.
“When it goes to penalties, somebody's going to lose in a horrible fashion. “We had that moment when the ball slipped to Ben Kennedy and I thought we might have knocked in the fourth goal that might have taken the tie away from them. “When it goes to penalties it's always going to be a lottery and I think in extra time both teams were slugging it out, there wasn't a lot of quality in that last half an hour.
“But from our point of view we've probably lost the tie over there, losing 2-0 and no.
