Maccabi Haifa coach Roni Levy paid the ultimate tribute to Cwmbran Town last night when he said he would use Brian Coyne's side as an example to his team.
Cwmbran lost 6-0 on aggregate in their UEFA Cup second leg tie against Maccabi Haifa but even at 3-0 down the Crows refused to give in and the team spirit showed by the South Wales outfit impressed the Israeli's so much that Levy will now use the "never say die" attitude shown by Cwmbran as an example to his side.
Levy (pictured) said: "Even at 3-0 Cwmbran refused to give in.
"Their work rate effort and effort was an example to my team.
"Even with the game lost they never gave in. We thought that the third goal might kill them off and give us the opportunity to score more goals, but they had a never say die spirit and their work rate and commitment was an example to my side.
"The team spirit in their squad was fantastic and I will be using this game as an example to my team.
"Even with the game lost they refused to roll over and die they played for pride and we can learn a lot from the attitude of their players.
"We are a full-time team but they matched us for work rate/commitment and effort and they must take a lot of credit for that.
"They are role models for us. Every bit of energy they had they gave in this game "It took us a while to score the first goal, longer than we expected, we had to be patient and wait to break them down and I'm happy with our performance.
"The game was always in our control but we did not dominate it as I had hoped and credit must got to Cwmbran Town for that.
The Crows lost 6-0 on aggregate but their newly appointed coach Brian Coyne was still proud of his side.
He said: "We are a semi-professional side so to lose to the likes of Maccabi Haifa is no disgrace.
"Everything I asked from my players they delivered and I cannot fault them in any area of the pitch.
"We aimed to set our stall out and make it hard for Haifa and I think we did that.
"But was is most pleasing for me is that even at 3-0 down the team spirit shown by my side was superb and I'm lucky to have that.
"I inherited that team spirit from Tony Wilcox, who is no longer with us, and he would have been proud of how the boys performed.
"Maccabi are a professional side but I think we have justified our inclusion as a Welsh Premier League side in the UEFA Cup and I hope that we can be involved in this competition next season."
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