The New Saints players celebrate after beating Bohemians

The New Saints managing director Mike Harris says reaching the Champions League third-qualifying round for the first time is worth a "pot of gold".

The Welsh Premier champions will face Belgian giants Anderlecht after beating Irish champions Bohemians 4-0 on Tuesday at Park Hall, 4-1 on aggregate.

"It's absolutely excellent, it hasn't quite sunk in yet," Harris told BBC Sport Wales.

The third qualifying round legs take place on 27 & 28 July and 3 & 4 August.

"I haven't quite worked out yet [how much income it will bring] but in terms of football, it's worth a pot of gold," he added.

If the Saints were to beat Anderlecht over two legs, they would go into the final qualifying stage and the winners from that would reach the multi-million pound group stage featuring the top clubs from countries including England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

But should they be beaten by Anderlecht, they will drop into the Europa League qualifying rounds, which would still offer a cash boost as well as kudos.

"What we've managed to do is demonstrate on an international stage that our league is worth every bit of work that every chairman in our league has strived to go forward," Harris added

"I've been a big advocate of Welsh football for many years.

"The league, especially in the last two to three seasons has come on leaps and bounds from where I thought we set a very, very high standard in 2005/06.

"You can see why players like Lee Trundle are coming to our league as opposed to going to lower league English teams."

"If you get to either the knockout rounds or into the Champions League, it far dwarfs any income that any team will get whether they play in England or they play in Wales," said Harris.

"There's four more ties of football for us to compete with. Let's hope it's Champions League football."

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