Losing early goal was crucial, says Dolan

Pat Dolan was offering no excuses as he held court on what had been a vastly disappointing evening for St Patricks' supporters in a capacity crowd of 9,500.

Conceding that Celtic were the superior team, he again lamented the lack of facilities in Irish football and the system which ordains that we export our best talent at an age when they are scarcely mature enough to make major career decisions.

"We didn't play as well as we did in the first game at Parkhead and it showed from an early stage," he said. "Celtic are a class act and once they had taken control of the game, it was always going to be very difficult for us.

"There were very few surprises out there this evening. We thought we might be in with a chance of winning the tie but losing that first goal so early in the game, was crucial."

Dr Jozef Venglos, Celtic's new coach, was looking at the game from a vastly different perspective. In Glasgow, he had taken some criticism for a strangely muted display by the men in green and white. Now he could afford to be considerably more expansive.

"I was very happy with the team's performance he said. "I thought we showed great discipline and patience and our passing was generally very good."

"We created some very good goal opportunities over the 90 minutes and now we can look forward to the prospect of further improvement in our next European tie against Croatia Zagreb.

"I agree with St Patrick's manager when he says that the early goal for us, coloured the game. It meant that we could relax more and achieve here what we failed to do in Glasgow."

Venglos's enthusiasm was shared by Harald Brattbakk, the Norwegian striker, who scored the first goal. "It was a much better Celtic display than in the first game and I was happy that it was my goal which made it easier for us," he said.

The only discordant note on an evening when kinsmanship was king, was the abuse directed at Jock Brown, general manager of Celtic. Brown has been the victim of some nasty verbal attacks recently but in spite of this latest abuse, he declined to make any comment.