Leaving Tallaght stadium on Thursday night, St Patricks Athletic fans would've felt a sense of what could have been despite a 1-0 victory over Azerbaijan side Sabah. Many will feel the Inchicore club could and should be flying to next week's away leg with a cushion of two or three goals.
Unfortunately it's only one and they will have their work cut out to progress against a side that contain six internationals and have serious aspirations of reaching the group stage.
Much to their supporters displeasure, UEFA’s stadium regulations for the business end of their club competitions meant that St Pats had to leave their home of Richmond Park and move to Tallaght stadium for the first leg.
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The only goal on the night was a fine effort from Romal Palmer after Jake Mulraney’s pin-point delivery in the 35th minute, the goal came at the perfect time and the 52nd-minute red card shown to midfielder Ivan Lepinjica was a reminder to Pats to push on and extend their one goal advantage.
Tonight’s opener, created by Jake Mulraney, scored by Romal Palmer & sponsored by @kavanaghspubd8 pic.twitter.com/8ywxJr4i1p
— St Patrick's Athletic FC (@stpatsfc) August 8, 2024
A second goal never came with the post denying captain Joe Redmond who had three opportunities to extend their lead much to the home supporters frustration.
Palmer, who is on loan from Turkish club Göztepe, has now scored twice in the Europa Conference League and is beginning to show his quality after overcoming injuries earlier in the season.
Manager Stephen Kenny was very honest about the players attitude to the slender victory ahead of the second leg:
The dressing room should be massively euphoric after winning in Europe at home in the first leg against a team of considerable talent but it wasn't, it wasn't euphoric at all.
“𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹”
Watch Stephen’s full post match chat with Adam Courtney on our YouTube ➡️ https://t.co/yFgZugUSFy#StPatsFC 🔴⚪️ pic.twitter.com/OlUFV5cPur— St Patrick's Athletic FC (@stpatsfc) August 9, 2024
The former Ireland boss realises they have a massive challenge ahead of them in Baku next week but was encouraged by their performance in Tallaght:
The players understood we missed opportunities to score a second goal but nevertheless, keeping a clean sheet is an excellent result. We’ll have to be at our best out there and put in the performance of our lives.
Undoubtedly there will be regrets following the result but if they can replicate the performance they will be confident that they can finish the job and progress to the playoff stages.
