O'Neill rues poor Rovers start

Shamrock Rovers manager Michael O’Neill praised PAOK Salonika as his side saw their hopes of progressing to the Europa League knockout stages end after a 3-1 defeat in Dublin.

PAOK striker Dimitris Salpingidis’ first-half brace and Giorgos Fotakis’ goal gave the Greek side a comfortable 3-0 lead at half-time before Billy Dennehy pulled one back after the break for the home side.

However, it was scant consolation for the back-to-back Irish champions, who failed to secure their first points of the campaign and can now no longer reach the final 32.

“I thought we started the game reasonably well, but they came into the game and were fantastic on the counter-attack,” O’Neill said.

“At 3-0 down we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

“The first goal we got caught on the counter-attack, and the second goal was an individual error from us. I thought we were totally outclassed in the first half.”

However, O’Neill was satisfied with the way his players fought back after the break after the end of their long domestic season.

“I thought we showed tremendous courage to get a goal back but we were always vulnerable to the counter-attack.

“We tired in the second half and they had really good technical players who exploited our tiredness. They were really good on the break.

“It has been a long, hard but very enjoyable season.

“To be honest we were very well beaten on the night.”