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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Sport
Gareth Fullerton

How Barry Town United can learn from Ballymena Utd's Europa League success

Barry Town United boss Gavin Chesterfield is hoping his players can learn from the European success of Irish League club Ballymena United.

Chesterfield's side slumped to a 4-0 defeat to Cliftonville in the Europa League last night .

Earlier in the evening Ballymena had sealed their progress in Europe with an aggregate win over NSI Runavik .

It saw the Sky Blues progress in Europe for the first time in their history, and their first in eight attempts dating back to the old Cup Winners Cup of 1978.

Barry Town were competing in Europe for the first time this summer, and Chesterfield believes they will learn from their experience.

"I read a stat last night that Ballymena have just qualified for the first time, at the eighth attempt," Chesterfield said in an interview on Friday.

"That shows you how difficult it is to progress in Europe. For us, it was a huge lerning curve."

Chesterfield added: "It was a fantastic experience playing in Europe, but a very difficult one. Ultimately it is diosappointing, and we were beaten by the better side over the two legs.

"Cliftonville deserved to go through, but hopefully this motivates us to do better.

"But we applaud Cliftonville and wish them well."

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