EUROPEAN FOOTBALL RARELY offers salvation for League of Ireland clubs.
Often it’s simply an escape from reality.
Chris Forrester explained as much from the St Patrick’s Athletic team hotel in Baku ahead of the second leg of their UEFA Conference League second-round qualifier with Sabah FK of Azerbaijan.
The Saints lead 1-0 from the meeting in Dublin so the prospect of reaching the play-off round is one that allows dreams to continue in this competition, at a time when their domestic struggles see them languishing seventh in the Premier Division.
“I think European football is a bit different. I don’t know, I feel Pat’s always do well in Europe. It’s not been great [in the league], there is no hiding away from that, our performances haven’t been great to be honest,” Forrester said.
“But in the European games, I feel like it’s the occasion and something out of the ordinary, like we kind of rise to it a bit, I know you could probably argue that we should be doing that every game but it’s sometimes not the case and not as easy as that.”
The lure of trying his luck on the continent always appealed but simply never materialised for one of the most technically gifted midfield operators the League of Ireland has seen.
“No, I had a few dodgy texts on Instagram from people pretending to be agents, other than that I never had offers from European teams,” Forrester, who will make his 20th appearance in European action since making his debut for Bohemians against Ljubljana in 2011, said.
“It’s definitely something I’d have been interested in doing, when you come to these countries and see the stadiums you think, ‘It’d be great to play here every week’. The cities you visit look great and the sun is shining so that’s an incentive rather than playing in a rainy Dublin. I never had offers but it’s something I’d have considered.”
Forrester is at a stage of his career, and life, where he can speak openly and like a grown up about ambitions that were never realised.
The 31-year-old is also willing to look in the mirror when it comes to assessing his own form this season.
“Yeah, you know, to be honest, performances this season from myself have been awful and I won’t hide away from it. It’s not down to not caring or anything like that, it’s just not been clicking and I understand that.
“I’m old enough now to understand that, but I feel like recent weeks I’ve been getting back to myself, getting playing well and as a team we’re playing well, and as a team we’re gelling together. But yeah, there is a bit more to come from me, I think.
“Some days I feel I leave a lot behind me and don’t really do enough as I should on the pitch. But there is definitely… I feel confident in myself and getting back to where I feel I need to be at.”
Forrester explained how manager Stephen Kenny, on the eve of his 50th European game as a League of Ireland boss, has been pushing him to rediscover the consistency that saw him named PFAI Players’ Player of the Year last season.
“When Chris came into football he was a skilful left winger and played off the cuff,” Kenny said. Over the years he developed into a midfield player. He works hard in the midfield and has an all round aspect to his game now, he does a bit of everything.
“It’s just to remind him of the creative instincts he possesses and getting him to unlock those as well, and the ability to score goals because he also possesses that which can be critical.”
An occasion like this one will highlight the importance of those instincts.
Pat’s could easily have taken a three-goal lead to Azerbaijan after putting in their best performance for some time against Sabah. The club has banked €900,000 from their European exploits so far and if they can produce another historic result it will see that balance swell to a minimum of €1.27 million.
“We have to make sure we play to the level we know we can and back ourselves to carry an attacking threat and try and score,” Kenny said.
“I feel Sabah will have more than they showed [in the first leg] and we’ll face different challenges. We have to be tactically astute and be aware of different things that could open up as the game develops. But we have pace in our own attack and we must look to carry the attacking threat we have and utilise it by creating goal scoring chances
“It would be a big achievement for the players to go through in the third round. Outside of the two nations, people wouldn’t have expected us to do that. In the first leg, I know they had a man sent off midway through the second half but we were very good and just couldn’t get that second goal.
“We will face different tactical challenges. They will definitely raise their game and we will have to raise ours. That’s the challenge for us.”
Live today - UEFA Conference League third qualifying round, second-leg: Sabak FK (0) v St Patrick’s Athletic (1). Kick-off: 5pm.
