St Patrick's Athletic 1-0 Krylya Sovetov

St Patrick’s Athletic take a precious lead to Russia next week following a pulsating Europa League tie with Krylya Sovetov at Richmond Park, writes Mark Cummins.

The visitors dominated the first half, but the Saints were fantastic in the second period.

Declan O’Brien scored the all-important winner on 70 minutes with a cracking strike past Eduardo Lobos. Although only at the club a fortnight, the goal puts O’Brien level with Mark Quigley as the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in Europe with three goals.

Having overcome the challenge of Valletta of Malta in the previous round, Pat’s found the threat posed by Sovetov to be of a much higher calibre.

The Russians included former Chelsea and Celtic player Jiri Jarosik but there was no place for fellow Czech international Jan Koller.

Apart from a Stuart Byrne chance on two minutes it was mostly one-way traffic as the visitors took the upper hand. Brazilian Silva Leilton sent a thunderous free wide on eight minutes while Vladislav Ignatev and Oleg Ivanov also found the target in the opening minutes.

In fact, there were spells where the Saints found it hard to even get the ball out of their own penalty area. When they did string together some passes they lead to nothing due to either sloppiness or a very well organised and professional Sovetov eleven.

O’Brien netted the two goals home and away that knocked out Valletta but rarely got a sniff of the ball in the first half. Glen Fitzpatrick also had a fruitless time in the opening 45 and was replaced at the break by Bobby Ryan.

Pat’s had a much better start to the second half although it was Sovetov who had the first good chance, but Gary Rogers was equal to Aleksandr Belozervo’s header.

O’Brien finally had a decent effort on goal on 58 minutes, but his shot was dealt with by Sovetov goalkeeper Eduardo Lobos.
On 63 Rogers saved well from Timofey Kalachev, before Ryan curled a shot inches of Lobos’s post on 65.

Pat’s were looking better as the match progressed and were rewarded for their endeavour on 70 minutes when O’Brien latched on to a Guy ball on the right at the Inchicore end and rifled past Lobos into the top corner.

With the goal in the bag, manager Jeff Kenna immediately made a change with the introduction of long-term injury victim Gary Dempsey for Byrne.

Sovetov were lethal in their pursuit of an equaliser and Rogers made a fantastic save from a Vladislav Kulik free kick on 84.

Guy nearly made it two in time added on, but shot wide having made an excellent run from the centre circle.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Rogers, Gavin, Harris, Partridge, Stevens, Byrne (Dempsey 71), Lynch, O’Connor, O’Brien, Fitzpatrick (Ryan h/t), Guy.

Krylya Sovetov: Lobos, Shishkin, Belozervo, Jarosik, Leilton, Bober, Kalachev, Ivanov (Kulik 78), Adzhindzhal, Ignatev, Savin.