Kenna prepared to take positive approach

Europa League - St. Patrick's Athletic v Steaua Bucharest:WITH THE number of locally based Romanians who have bought tickets threatening to make tomorrow night's Europa league play-off second leg feel more like an away leg, St Patrick's Athletic manager Jeff Kenna admits he will have to dump the five-man midfield that got his side this far in the competition and go for goals.

The Dubliners trail Steaua Bucharest 3-0 going into the game at the RDS and need to pull off their second great European fightback of the summer if they are to make it to the European stages.

Kenna readily admits it is a tall order and acknowledges the possibility that they will be stretched at the back if they look to push forward but, he says: “I don’t see much point in sitting there with five men in midfield and trying to stop them if they are 3-0 up.

“We’ve got to try to get goals and that means starting with two up front.

“I haven’t decided which two of my players will be playing up front but what I can tell you at this stage is that there will be two up there.”

The manager must decide between Glen Fitzpatrick, Declan O’Brien and Mark Quigley for the two starting spots in attack, with the options taken there having a knock-on effect with regard to the wide midfield positions.

One of those hoping to regain a place on the wing as Kenna looks to find a way of opening up the Romanian side is Bobby Ryan, the former Shelbourne and Bohemians player who can add further European experience to the starting line up if selected.

“It was disappointing being left out last time but the manager has to pick a team that he thinks will do a job out there,” he says.

“For a lot of the game we were involved in it, we were in with a chance. But the goals over there killed it a bit.

“Hopefully we’re in the tie and I get on the pitch at some stage. We know we’re up against it but all we can do is give it our best and you never know.

“You just have to take heart from the game against the Russians in the last round because they were awesome for the first 15 minutes of the second half, they battered us.

“They could have killed the game off but missed a few chances. We got one, and then two and that was it. We are able to score goals in Europe, we have the players to do it and hopefully we can again.”

The hosts are expecting a crowd of around 6,000 for the game tomorrow but as of yesterday most of the tickets sold had gone to members of the Romanian community here.

“We’re expecting a lot of our fans to buy over the next day or so,” said a club official.