St Patrick's Athletic manager Stephen Kenny won’t be too concerned if his side don’t score early on in their UEFA Conference League qualifier against Besiktas at Tallaght Stadium tonight.
The Saints welcome the Turkish giants for the first of their two-legged tie in the third-round qualifiers, having already dug out some big results thanks to late European goals.
Half of the goals scored by St Pat’s in the Conference League this season have come in injury-time, with all three of their goals in the last round against Estonian side Kalju arriving after the clock had ticked past 90.
For Kenny, that is sure sign of his side’s never-say-die attitude and he’s hoping that they can repeat the trick tonight against Besiktas.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he said: "We had a barren period in the middle of the season but then in the European games we’ve had Aideen Keena, Chris Forester and Joe Redmond all score late.
"[In Europe] we’ve had goals in the 81st minute, 90th minute, 91st and 93rd minute. Those are good traits, you can’t underestimate the value of it and the determination to keep going.
"When you get your rewards you feel the next match you will again. Those things can help players."
St Pat’s may well need that help given the step-up in the opposition they face.
Managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Besiktas have a wealth of international players are their disposal and the likes of Tammy Abraham, Joao Mario and Gabriel Paulista are all in line to feature in Tallaght.
Besiktas are still in the middle of their pre-season preparations and come into the Conference League off the back of a disappointing defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk, but Kenny does not think they’ll be caught cold again.
He said: "Obviously they got beaten by Shakhtar Donetsk in their first European game and Shakhtar were really brilliant on the night, they’ve got a whole host of Brazilian players who really turned it on.
"Besiktas’ league hasn’t started yet but they’ve had a full week to prepare and they’ve signed a few players in the interim.
"From our point of view, we have very little time to prepare because we obviously has 120 minutes on Thursday and then we played in Waterford on Sunday.
"That was a quick turnaround for us, so we’ll just dust ourselves down and get ready for the game.
"We’re excited for it and we want to do well. It’s difficult to win over two legs but we must give ourselves every opportunity.
"This is a different challenge, they have formidable attacking players, they’re physically strong. We’ve got to make sure that we establish some kind of control in the game and that we have belief in ourselves.
"We know that we have speed in the team and that we can add that attacking threat.
"Obviously Besiktas have so many international players and they’re a formidable team, we don’t but we have a lot of emerging players who are making a name for themselves in their career.
"We’ve done well in the opening two rounds to get to this stage and we don’t want it to end here."
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