THE New Saints boss Anthony Limbrick heaped praise on his star number nine as Declan McManus fired his side towards UEFA Conference League qualification.

The Scottish forward, signed for £60,000, scored a penalty in each half and added a fine individual goal as TNS beat FC Viktoria Plzen 4-2 in Cardiff.

He also had warm words for late selection Blaine Hudson, who marked his first appearance in three months with a header to set the Saints off.

But Limbrick admitted that while he is hugely proud of his side, the late goal to cut the deficit to two has left his players somewhat deflated.

“Dec is first and foremost a top character that’s come into the group and has added to the good people in there,” said Limbrick.

“He’s still got more to come because he came into pre-season late, so he’s getting up to fitness.

“His hold up play is brilliant, he loves it into feet and he can run the defenders; it wasn’t just his penalties tonight, his hat-trick goal was fantastic.

“But someone who mustn’t be overlooked is Blaine.

“He’s been out with a knee injury, he’s had no football during pre-season – not playing at all – and he’s only come into training in the last few weeks.

“To be thrown in tonight, only at the last-minute, I thought he was outstanding and that can’t be underestimated.

“When you haven’t played any football, to come into a game like this with the threats they had up front was incredible.

“It’s a real mixture of both feelings of disappointment of conceding at the end and the pride in this being one of the best performances in TNS’s history.

“I keep trying to remind myself of how well we did tonight but 4-1 compared to 4-2 would have been a huge difference.

“To be three goals up rather than two goals is better and it’s tough but credit to the players, they’re really disappointed in the dressing room which shows how much we value not conceding.

“But if you’d said at the start that we’d be two-up at the end of the game, we’d have been happy against a team of that level, calibre and spending on players.

“We’ve got to be happy.”

Limbrick remain tight-lipped about how he will set up his men for the return leg in Plzen next Thursday, but he says the atmosphere and challenge is what he signed up for.

He added: “Next week are the games we want to play in, that’s why I came here and it’s why the players come here.

“It’s all we’ve talked about and going through, so to have a taste of it we know what it’s now about.

“We’ll have a good look at that, and at tonight to see where we need to improve and do better.

“We’ll get a game plan together and hopefully come away with the win.”