Stephen Kenny's eyes set on Euro playoff berth for St Pat's 

SIGHTS SET: St. Patrick's Athletic boss Stephen Kenny. Pic: Aleksandar Djorovic/Inpho

Stephen Kenny’s 50th match as a manager in Europe promises to be a milestone if he steers St Patrick’s Athletic to a playoff and a guaranteed €1.28m of Uefa prize-money.

Hurdling one round – as FAI Cup holders they gained a bye to the second round – set up a clash with FK Sabah and they take a 1-0 advantage to Baku (5pm, Thursday).

Knocked out of the Cup in the first round and seventh in the league, this is their path to redemption this season.

Their challenge on Thursday evening is withstanding the heat, both in temperature and waves of attacks from their hosts, to set up a playoff against either Georgian outfit FC Iberia 1999 Tbilisi or İstanbul Başakşehir of Turkey, scoreless from their own first leg.

“It would be tremendous to get to the fourth round - the playoffs,” said Kenny, who brought Dundalk to the group stages of the Europa League in 2016.

“The only probable route for an Irish team to qualify for the group stages is to win the league as the backdoor opportunities created through the Champions path are greater.

“This is going through the hard way, through the rounds.

“Sabah will have an attacking cutting edge in their front four for sure. They have dribblers and speed in their attack and they like to dominate possession.

“We will have to counter that and try to establish possession ourselves but we showed in Tallaght last week that all our players are technically capable.” 

Injured striker Cian Kavanagh is replaced by tyro Michael Noonan, the recently turned 16-year-old the Irish Examiner last week revealed has offers from a number of European clubs.

Older players have taken the burden of flak for an underwhelming season, led by veteran Chris Forrester.

“Personal performances this season have been awful,” he confessed from the plush team hotel 5,000 kilometres from home.

“That’s not down to a lack of caring, things just haven’t clicked. I’m old enough to understand and there’s more to come from me.

“Sometimes I leave a lot behind me and don’t do enough on the pitch but I feel confident I’m getting back to myself.” 

They’ll likely have to operate without last week’s matchwinner, Romal Palmer, regardless of whether they progress in Europe. He’s on loan from Turkish side Göztepe and is heading back to his native England.

“It's a situation I can't really get into at the moment - a complex situation,” Kenny noted.

“I wasn't involved in that (transfer). Ger O'Brien, the director of football, negotiated the deal but Romal has been terrific for us.

“He was injured coming in and it took him a long time to get right. I know there has been speculation and so forth, but we just want to focus on this game.”