INVERNESS Caledonian Thistle’s first foray into European competition looks distinctly like it could be a fleeting one after this narrow home defeat to a superior Astra Giurgiu side.

John Hughes’s team will travel to Romania for the second leg of this Europa League second qualifying round tie next week with slim hopes of staging a fightback and progressing. Their cause is by no means hopeless given the margin of defeat.

Inverness, to their great credit, pushed hard for an equaliser in the second half last night and Aaron Doran, Dani Lopez and Ryan Christie all had opportunities to level the contest in the closing stages.

“We certainly deserved something out of the match,” claimed Hughes afterwards. “It was disappointing to concede such a cheap goal, especially at a free-kick. We dominated the game and just need to show more of a cutting edge in the final third.”

Yet, the Ladbrokes Premiership club’s inexperience of continental football showed at times against more composed opponents who defeated Lyon to make it into the group stages of this competition last term.

It will, then, be asking rather a lot for them to fare better at the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici in the second leg than they did at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in their first competitive fixture on foreign soil and go through.

It was always going to be a tall order for the Highlanders, who were formed just 21 years ago, to progress given that three key members of their Scottish Cup winning-side have departed since that historic triumph.

Ed Ofere and Marley Watkins, their first choice strikeforce, and Graeme Shinnie, without question their outstanding player, have all left since their historic 2-1 victory over Falkirk at Hampden in May.

It will take time and hard work for Inverness to replace that trio. It is by no means certain they will be able to do so successfully. It was certainly unrealistic to expect them to compensate for their loss in time for this double header.

That said, Hughes’s team selection was curious. Owain Fon Williams, the former Tranmere Rovers goalkeeper who was a wildcard signing earlier in the day, slotted straight into his side.

The 28-year-old, a regular member of the full Welsh national squad, is an experienced player. But was throwing him into the side at the expense of Ryan Esson wise?

Esson coped with the cup semi-final and final against Celtic and Falkirk respectively well last term and, with Dean Brill still unavailable for selection due to a long-term knee injury, it may have been more sensible to persevere with him.

There were three new faces in the home team’s starting line-up in total. As well as Williams, Dani Lopez played in the lone striker role while Nat Wedderburn slotted into central midfielder alongside Ross Draper

New assistant manager Brian Rice, a long-time associate of Hughes who took over from Russell Latapy on Wednesday, also organised the warm-up before kick-off and was an animated figure in the technical area.

There was a real carnival atmosphere before the game got underway, as was befitting of such a momentous occasion, as 5,534 fans filled the Main Stand and North Stand and much of the South Stand.

The hosts were visibly lifted by that backing and started the better of the two teams. Christie had a left foot shot palmed wide by Astra keeper Silviu Lung in the 19th minute.

But Constantin Budescu, the visiting captain, netted with Astra’s first attempt on goal in the 24th minute, after Draper had gifted the visitors a free-kick in a dangerous area needlessly, to silence the crowd.

Budesco’s attempt was certainly a decent one. Williams, though, appeared to be badly positioned as it floated over the defensive wall. He got a hand to the ball but was unable to keep it out of his net.

Williams did well to parry a long-range attempt by the scorer from open play shortly before half-time. However, his shot was a further indication that Marius Sumudica’s side was in control and posed a greater threat.

Inverness fared better going forward in the second half with Christie revelling on the stage and showing some intelligent movement and nice touches. But it was still Astra who looked more like netting.

William de Amorim linked well with Budescu in the 69th minute to create an opening. After playing a tidy one-two with his skipper he struck the post when he probably should have killed off the fixture.

Hughes threw on David Raven and Jordan Roberts as the minutes ticked down and club captain Richie Foran. That latter substitution drew a huge roar as the Irishman was returning after over a year out. It was all the Inverness fans had to shout about.