Saints’ long and winding road east

BEFORE St Patrick’s Athletic even take to the field against Shakhtar Karagandy today (2pm Irish time), they will have felt like they’ve endured an entire Europa League campaign – let alone a mere qualifier.

Having been drawn to go from literally one end of the continent to the other in heading from Iceland to Kazakhstan, the logistics of the trip to the former Soviet country have proved arduous. And, worse, the club is likely to lose money from it.

The trek began at 3.50pm on Tuesday with a flight from Dublin to Heathrow. On landing in the London Airport, St Pat’s secretary Anthony Delaney had to dash to the Kazakh embassy to retrieve the squad’s visas.