St Patrick’s Athletic manager Liam Buckley has called for an improved performance from his side against AS Jeunesse Esch in the Europa League first qualifying round second leg tie tomorrow night – kick-off 5.45pm Irish time.
The Saints head into tomorrow night’s match with a 1-0 lead thanks to Christy Fagan's goal from last Tuesday's first leg in Richmond Park, but Buckley is hoping for an away goal to help them through to the next round.
"It's great to have a lead heading into this second leg, and the clean sheet last week was crucial" - Liam Buckley
Buckley, whose side have landed in Luxembourg ahead of the tie, said: “Looking back on last week's result, you've got to be happy any time you get a win in Europe.
"Jeunesse are a good side and showed that last week. That being said, we know we can play better and our general play can improve a lot.
"Jeunesse aren't in the middle of their season like ourselves at present, but they only finished in May so I wouldn't read into things like that an awful lot. Both teams now know an awful lot about each other compared to last week so we can expect them to cause problems for us."
Despite the 1-0 advantage, Buckley wants his side to approach the match as normal, with the hope their passing game can see them through.
He said: "It's great to have a lead heading into this second leg, and the clean sheet last week was crucial.
“The away goal is always crucial in the Europa League and we know if we can get one, it could go a long way to getting through.
“However we've just got to approach the game as we normally would; get out and play our game and get our passing and overall rhythm going.
"If we do that, there's no reason why we cannot progress to the next round."
Saints' winger Conan Byrne, who is no stranger to European football having appeared for Sporting Fingal in the Europa League in 2010 and has featured for the Saints for the past four seasons in Europe, echoed the sentiments of his manager, admitting that the Inchicore side need to apply the right mindset tomorrow night.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com, Byrne said: "Last week we went about things right. The early goal helped and we looked to get that second goal following on from that and were a little unlucky not to score.
“They stepped it up a bit in the second half and we did well to weather the storm and went close to getting that second goal."
"If we can apply ourselves right tomorrow night, we can get through this tie."
