Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Besiktas next up for St Pat's on Conference journey
NEXT ROUND: St Pat's Al-Amin Kazeem celebrates after his side's win in Tallinn, Estonia. Pic: Evaldas Semiotas/Sportsfile
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Besiktas visit St Patrick’s Athletic in next Thursday’s Conference League third round after Stephen Kenny’s side escaped a late scare in Estonia to progress.
Nõmme Kalju looked susceptible to being torpedoed when the Saints built on a slender first-leg by bossing early possession but they conceded either side of the break to stare elimination in the face.
Captain Joe Redmond rescued their plight by pouncing in stoppage time to force extra-time before the returning Jake Mulraney embarrassed home goalkeeper Maksim Pavlov by lobbing him scored early to complete a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Saints also recovered from the loss of star striker Mason Melia to injury at half-time and came through a biblical downpour to repeat last year’s feat of reaching the third round.
Replicating their march to the playoff round – where they lost to another Turkish outfit İstanbul Başakşehir - hinges on seeing off a Turkish outfit nowadays led by former Manchester United boss Solskjær.
His side drop into Uefa’s third competition by losing heavily over two legs against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Trailing 4-2 from their Europa League home leg, Besiktas conceded another two without reply in the return, played at the Ukrainians’ nominated venue of Kraków.
They will be gracing Tallaght in the first leg due to Pat’s’ home ground of Richmond Park being unsuitable for this stage of the competition.
Pat’s might have been saying goodbye to Europe only for a lifeline at the death.
While Kenny highlighted six clean sheets on the bounce as evidence of solidity, they were caught napping for two goals. Tallinn’s sparsely populated Lilleküla Stadium were gifted an advantage they seldom hinted at in the first two hours of the tie.
Beforehand, Mulraney fired straight at Pavlov after cutting in while Melia twice went with headers, the second of which left him nursing a rib injury.
He made way for Aiden Keena but only after midfielder Barry Baggley was late tracking the run of Ivan Patrikejevs two minutes before the break. He probably expected his goalkeeper Joseph Anang to keep out the low shot which snuck inside the near post to level up the tie.
Straight after the restart, the fixture swung the way of the Estonians after Mattias Männilaan was allowed to rise high eight yards out and thump his header beyond the Ghanaian custodian.
Keena and Simon Power both fired wide as the clock ticked down but an enterprising run and shot by defender Tom Grivosti earned a corner on the cusp of stoppage time.
Mulraney’s dribble from the set-piece led to a free and took, from which the hapless goalkeeper could only parry. Redmond was on hand to scoop the rebound in.
It would be Mulraney’s night. Only three minutes into extra-time he dropped his shoulder on the right and floated a cross that morphed into a shot which beat the stranded stopper.
: M Pavlov; D Tarassenkov, M Tambedou, U Korre, Al Nikolajev; O Musolitin (M Orlov 105), I Patrikejevs (T Baptista 104), N Ivanov (P Marin 80), K Kask (E Esono 96); G Smith (I Jabir 87), M Mannilaan.
: J Anang; R McLaughlin, J Redmond, T Grivosti, J McClelland (A Breslin 85); J Lennon, B Baggley (C Forrester 51); S Power, K Leavy (B Kavanagh 72), J Mulraney (A Amin-Kazzem 105); M Melia (A Keena 46, inj – C Carty 72).
Menelaos Antoniou (Cyprus).
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