Stephen Kenny’s side emerged victorious in game where Sabah went down to 10 men

Daire Walsh

Uefa Conference League third qualifying round second leg: Sabah 0 St Patrick’s Athletic 1 (Dashdamirov OG 48)

(St Patrick’s Athletic win 2-0 on aggregate)

St Patrick’s Athletic have progressed to the main path playoff round of the Uefa Conference League after securing a 2-0 aggregate triumph over 10-man Sabah at Alinja Stadium in Baku this evening.

Having previously guided Dundalk to the group stages of the Uefa Europa League, Pat’s manager Stephen Kenny will now hope to bring his current employers to the league phase of the Conference League. Standing in their way will be Turkey’s Istanbul Başakşehir, who beat Iberia 1999 of Georgia tonight.

Thanks to Romal Palmer’s 35th-minute goal at Richmond Park seven days earlier, Pat’s held the upper hand coming into their quick reunion with the Azerbaijan Premier League outfit. While a much-changed Saints team secured a draw away to Galway United in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division last Sunday, the only alteration from the starting line-up for the first leg was the inclusion of teenage starlet Mason Melia at the expense of Aidan Keena.

In their dual capacity as the host of the fixture and the team that were seeking to address a slender deficit, it was little surprise that Sabah established early pressure inside the Saints half. Joseph Anang had some shaky moments in the St Pat’s goal during the opening exchanges, before the ex-England under-20 international saved a long-distance effort from Jesse Sekidika on 17 minutes.

Pavol Safranko also fired wide of the target moments later, but Pat’s subsequently received a major boost in the 27th minute of the action. The south Dubliners had gained a numerical advantage in Inchicore last week when Ivan Lepinjica was sent off in the early stages of the second half and Sabah were once again reduced to 10 after Soufiane Chakla was red carded for fouling Palmer as he was looking to break away on goal.

This significantly eased the pressure on the Saints and although they could not add to their aggregate lead before the interval, Pat’s were very much in pole position to progress when the play resumed.

Indeed, despite Sabah’s Joy-Lance Mickels testing the resolve of Anang from distance, the Inchicore men had one foot in the play-off round by breaking the deadlock on the night just three minutes into the second half.

It was hard to tell from the replay how much contact Zachary Elbouzedi got to a Jake Mulraney delivery before Rahman Dashdamirov headed towards his own goal, but the important factor from a Pat’s perspective was that the ball wound up in the back of the net following the intervention by the Sabah substitute.

This left the Saints within sight of the next phase in the competition and Palmer was close to doubling their tally for the night inside the final-quarter. Substitute Kian Leavy also produced a fine save from Sabah netminder Yusif Imanov in the closing minutes, but with Sabah lacking a clinical edge in the final third, Pat’s were still able to ease themselves into the play-off round.

SABAH: Imanov; Seydiyev, Chakla, Irazabal, Letic; Khaibulaev (Dashdamirov, 30 mins), Jamalov (Nuriiev, 78 mins); Parris (Alaskarov, 58 mins), Sekidika (Seyidov, 78 mins), Mickels; Safranko (Aliyev, 58 mins).

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Anang; Sjoberg, Redmond, Grivosti, Breslin; Forrester (Bolger, 73 mins), Palmer (Kazeem, 90 mins), Lennon; Elbouzedi (McClelland, 90 mins), Melia (Keena, 73 mins), Mulraney (Leavy, 78 mins).

Referee: M Birsan (Romania).