St Patrick’s score late winner in Europe

St Patrick’s Athletic have continued their unbeaten run in Europe with a scrappy but deserved 1-0 win in the Europa Conference League in Inchicore on Thursday evening.

St Pat’s have as of recent been in good goalscoring form following wins against Hegelmann and UCC where they notched ten goals in two games.

Eight admittedly coming against lesser opposition in UCC.

Regardless, for much of their match yesterday against Estonian side Kalju it looked like they could potentially slide back into the previous form which has plagued their domestic season and at one stage saw them score just twice in seven league matches.

Throughout the game the Pat’s defence had very little to do.

Joe Redmond and co were very rarely called upon with Joseph Anang in goal being essentially a spectator.

The other end of the pitch saw a little more action with Simon Power and Jake Mulraney both having their efforts saved by Kalju goalkeeper Pavlov.

It wouldn’t be until the second half where Pat’s would really take control of the game.

Red cards are rare enough in football but to see two for the same team is almost unheard of.

Kalju would go down to nine men halfway through the second half and would find themselves on the receiving end of waves of pressure from St Pat’s.

Mason Melia came close in the 71st minute but fired home wide a chance that he really should have put away.

Aidan Keena came close shortly after with the Kalju keeper coming to the rescue once again. Still they would not be able to hold out forever and it would be the 90th minute before finally the deadlock was broken.

Played through by Brandon Kavanagh, Conor Carty’s shot was once again saved by Pavlov but after a stellar performance in goal, was unable to save Chris Forrester’s rebound.

Forrester showed brilliant skill to take a touch, protect the ball from incoming defenders and tap it home into the back of the net.

Now with an advantage heading to Estonia next week, Pats will be confident that they will be able to progress to the next round.

While they certainly won’t look past their opposition on Thursday they must be aware of  a huge cup tie with Besiktas looming on the horizon.

The former Champions League quarter finalists Shakhtar Donetsk dispatched Turkish giants Besiktas 4-2 in Turkey on Thursday evening.

While that Europa League tie still has another leg, Besiktas are certainly the team you would expect to drop down to the conference league third qualifying round.