John Caulfield said Cork City's tension-filled Europa League first qualifying round defeat of Linfield was the biggest night he's had in his time at the club.
Holding a 1-0 advantage going into the second leg at Turner's Cross on Thursday night, Sean Maguire broke the deadlock with a penalty shortly into the second half before Linfield replied through a Mark Stafford header four minutes later.
David Healy's men threw everything at the hosts as they pushed for a second that would put them through on away goals, but Cork survived a couple of scares to see out the tie.
Caulfield did not attempt to play down the significance of the success.
"That was probably the biggest game in the history of the club since I’ve come in," he told RTÉ Sport.
"You look at it, it’s worth four times more than winning the FAI Cup; it’s worth twice as much as winning the league. From a financial point of view it’s so difficult to run clubs nowadays, it was a huge match. There’s a bit of relief to it."
"It’s worth four times more than winning the FAI Cup; it’s worth twice as much as winning the league."
Linfield had former Manchester United stopper Roy Carroll to thank for keeping them in the tie as the veteran denied Cork with a string of fine saves.
Caulfield - like the home faithful - was on the edge of his seat as the game's five minutes of injury-time ticked down but felt his side ultimately got what they deserved: a trip to Sweden next week to play BK Hacken in the next round.
“We knew they were very dangerous at long throws, setpieces," he said. "We didn’t give our best performance but to be fair Roy Carroll has probably pulled off about five top-class saves. He kept them in the game. I suppose we did enough to win the tie so we’re happy.
“I know the fans were on the edge of their seats. They were throwing caution to the wind the last 15, 20 minutes but to be fair to the lads they stood up and defended.
"They got blocks in and headers in and while we could have scored a couple of goals and Carroll made some good saves, at the same time there was always that danger. Over the two games we were the better team. It was a massive win for us.
“We went for the win, we didn’t want to sit back and I think our bravery over the two games probably stood to us in the end. It’s great for the club."
