ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC manager Stephen Kenny rued two of his side’s missed chances in the first half as Istanbul Basaksehir made them pay to qualify for the Uefa Conference League.
But the Saints boss was full of praise for his side’s performances throughout the European run and hailed their ability to go toe to toe with the Turkish club over two legs.
Mason Melia had a fine early chance that he struck straight into the goalkeeper’s arms but the 16-year-old once again performed admirably overall.
Kian Leavy also had a break on goal that resulted in a shot that he fired well wide but, like Melia up top, Leavy carried his side’s biggest threat from midfield all night and caused the home side problems.
“We’re disappointed to go out and lose the game, obviously hugely disappointed,” Kenny said. “You are always going to be up against it coming here. We knew that, we were under no illusions, but over the two legs the players were absolutely excellent.
“We probably deserved to win last week and tonight you are going to concede possession at times because they force you back with their inverted full-backs and the runs they make. Obviously we had two great chances in the first-half and we didn’t capitalise on that, and we probably need to.”
Basaksehir broke the deadlock on 64 minutes and then scored a second on 82 minutes, just 60 seconds after St Pat’s substitute Aaron Bolger was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle.
“Halfway through the second-half it was nil-all, still in the balance and they’ve taken the lead. Then obviously the sending off hasn’t helped us for the second goal. We were still in the game at 1-0, as we’ve seen with Brandon Kavanagh’s late chance, so it’s disappointing to go out against an excellent team.
“It’s difficult to analyse because we’re so gutted,” Kenny added, assessing the European campaign as a whole.
“The players were brilliant against Vaduz, to score five goals, two clean sheets against Sabah who are a highly regarded team. Ye know, a €12 million budget. A really serious team. I think tonight we’ve pushed them.
“You can see by their celebrations here, the relief of getting over the line against us because they know over the 180 minutes they’ve been in a really tough tie. We’ve got to dust ourselves down and take that defeat.”
Midfielder Jamie Lennon spoke along similar lines to his manager has he reflected on a bittersweet night for the League of Ireland club, who looked to join Shamrock Rovers in the league phase of European competition in the same season.
“It was a tough night. I felt at half-time that they might have had the bulk of possession, but I thought we had the two best chances early on in the game and we didn’t take them. We came in at half-time and spoke about how we were still well in the game,” the Dubliner said.
“Even when we went 1-0 down I thought we’d still hopefully get another chance, because we’d proven that we could get chances against them. But once the sending off happens it becomes much more difficult after that and, yeah, it was a tough one to take in the end.
“They are a top team, to be fair to them. They have some serious players and they challenge you tactically, technically and physically as well, especially away from home where they got the crowd behind them early.
“To be fair, we brought a great away support and we could still hear them amongst everyone else. Look, it’s frustrating, it really is. We genuinely believed in the group that we could go and win, so to go home now with nothing is very disappointing for us.
“The last six weeks have been really enjoyable. They’ve been tough as well; not many days off, a lot of preparation, a lot of travelling. These are the positions that you want to be in as a player, even if you have to play three times in a week. Play away from home in places like this.
“This is what we want to do and this is the level we want to get to. Look, we’re disappointed but we can be proud of ourselves with how we’ve played over the last six weeks. It will only give us confidence going into the last nine or 10 games in the league and hopefully we can bring those performances into the league.
“Other than the result I really enjoyed tonight. Proper stadium, proper fans, the pitch was brilliant and our fans were amazing. To play in Europe and challenge yourself against the elite players in Europe is what I want to do. It was challenging but really enjoyable too. I enjoyed the home games with the fans. It’s difficult to think right now but I’m sure in time we’ll look back with good memories.”
