Pats into Europa third round

Valletta 0 St. Patrick’s Athletic 1

(St. Pat’s win 2-1 on aggregate)

Declan O’Brien was once again the goal hero as ten man St. Pat’s won in Malta to reach the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

It looked grim for Saints on 79 minutes when Darragh Ryan, on the pitch just five minutes as a substitute, was sent off for a professional foul on Geert den Ouden with the score still tied at 1-1 from the first leg in Dublin.

But within a minute, on loan O’Brien, who'd scored Saints' goal in the first leg on his debut, struck to clinch the Inchicore side’s passage when meeting right-back Jason Gavin‘s cross to head home.

The win throws up a logistical nightmare for the Dubliners, however, as St. Pat's now meet krylya Sovetov Samara of Russia.

The first leg is at Richmond Park next Thursday with the return in Samara, a city over 500 miles east of Moscow, the following week.