Fagan’s finish puts Pat’s in control

A first-half goal from Christy Fagan was enough to get St Patrick’s Athletic off to a winning start in their Europa League First Qualifying Round First Leg tie against Icelandic side IBV Vestmannaeyjar at Richmond Park last night.

Against long odds given the breadth of European club competition these days, this was a repeat of last year’s meeting between the two clubs when Pats overturned a one-nil away deficit to win 2-1 on aggregate.

Both sides were much changed in the intervening year and both went into this one in good shape domestically with the IBV coming off the back of a six-game winning streak in which they’d scored 21 goals and conceded just six.