St Patrick’s Athletic progressed to the first round proper of the UEFA Cup on a historic night for Irish football at Richmond Park, writes Mark Cummins.
Goals from Jason Gavin (which took a deflection off a Swedish leg) and Mark Quigley put Pat’s into Friday’s draw.
It looked like curtains for Pat’s after Stefan Ishizaki had put Elfsborg ahead on 63 minutes, but a thoroughly professional performance brought Pat’s back to life.
They can now look forward to at least two more European nights as they fly the flag for Irish football in Europe.
The Saints were without captain Jamie Harris and Joe O’Cearuill, who both received their second yellow cards of this season's competition in the first leg. Stephen Paisley returned after missing Sunday’s 1-0 win over Sligo Rovers and was partnered by Jason Gavin in central defence.
Gary O'Neill, coming back after a long lay-off with a groin injury, started alongside Quigley up front in a strong St Pat’s starting XI.
Behind on away goals after a 2-2 drew a fortnight ago, the Swedes needed a goal and went looking for one from the very start.
With less than a minute on the clock, Lars Nilsson found Ishizaki with a super ball down the middle but the Pat’s defence cleared, while Emit Bajrami couldn’t do much with the loose ball.
On six minutes, Nillson chased a ball into the box into what looked like a dangerous position, but there was too much pace on it and Pat’s goalkeeper Barry Ryan collected the ball with ease.
After that, St Pat’s settled down and played some excellent football. There was brilliant, confident passing, up and down the wings and across the park. The only negative aspect of their play – which drew a few groans from the fans – was one too many back passes to Ryan.
On 15 minutes, Keith Fahey tried his luck with a shot from about 25 yards out, but his effort had too much spin in it and the ball flew high and wide of Johan Wiland’s right-hand post.
On 20 minutes, Bagrami broke free on the left for Elfsborg with just Ryan to beat but was flagged offside. He angrily kicked the ball goalward anyway – and shot wide.
In an explosive 25th minute, Bobby Ryan put Quigley through but Wiland got to the ball just before him. Then just seconds later, Wiland made a fantastic save from a Fahey piledriver. On 26 minutes, Wiland then tipped a Quigley ball over the bar.
The game petered out a bit after that until Elfsborg hit a bit of form coming up half-time, but Barry Ryan came to the rescue twice in the 39th minute. Firstly, he blocked a shot from Ishizaki before pulling off a truly magnificent block to deny Nillson.
Pat’s played into the Kilmainham end in the second half and started that second period where they had left off, with Fahey flashing a blockbuster from 30 yards out. But his shot, from dead centre, was well saved by Wiland.
On 55 minutes, Gary Dempsey struck a beautiful shot from 25 yards that had Wiland beaten but agonisingly tipped the crossbar as it went over.
Against the run of play, Elfsborg took the lead on 63 minutes.
Teddy Lucic, Bajrami and Nillson were all involved in and around the Pat’s penalty area, but it was Ishizaki who got the killer touch from close range to put the Swedes ahead on the night and in the tie.
With that goal in the bag they went with a more conservative, defensive formation with James Keene coming on for Bajrami.
This made it much more difficult for Pat’s to be as creative as they had been previously and chances for the home side were at a premium.
However, one of those chances did materialise on 77 minutes. Substitute Alan Kirby played Ryan Guy in and the American got a shot on target, but there wasn’t enough in it and Wiland had no problem with the save.
But miracles do happen, and on 86 minutes a Jason Gavin strike inside a packed goalmouth found the back off the net with the slightest of deflections off a Swedish leg.
Then on 90 minutes, Quigley found himself alone in possession, rounded the 'keeper and walked the ball into the net to cap a memorable night for the Inchicore club.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Barry Ryan, Paisley, Lynch, Byrne (O’Brien 81), Gavin, Dempsey, Fahey, Bobby Ryan (Kirby 74), Guy, O’Neill (Fitzpatrick 69), Quigley.
IF Elfsborg: Wiland, Floren, Karlsson, Svensson, Nilsson, Avdic (Berglund 59), Moback, Lucic, Bajrami (Keene 65), Augustsson, Ishizaki (Kurbegovic 81).
Referee: R Havrille (Slo).
Attendance: 3,000.
