EUROPA LEAGUE:A LITTLE like the 150 or so St Patrick's Athletic supporters who will benefit from Uefa regulations concerning away teams and game played behind closed doors, Mark Quigley was still getting over the surprise yesterday of finding himself on a flight to Bucharest for tomorrow's Europa League play-off game against Steaua.
The 23-year-old striker has sat out the bulk of the season with a succession of injuries and has just returned from a lengthy absence prompted by a badly broken jaw.
The truth is, he admits, having missed the trip to Samara for the game against Krylia Sovetov in the last round and kept up with the score via television text he had pretty much given up any hope of the Dubliners progressing when the Russians went 3-0 in front.
“It was 3-0 and I got a bit disheartened obviously enough,” he says. “I just said to myself; ‘Ah well, that’ll be me until next year or the year after with Europe’. Then Gary Dempsey texted me and I thought he was winding me up. But I rang him and he said yeah, we were after scoring two goals. I checked on the television and it wasn’t coming up as a result for ages so I was texting people over in Russia. Obviously they said we had gone through so I was delighted. Hopefully, it means a chance for me to play in Europe.”
Quigley acknowledges Declan O’Brien’s heroics in the European games so far (one goal in each of the club’s four outings) have pretty much robbed him of a chance of starting up front but Jeff Kenna has welcomed the striker’s return as providing an additional option.
And having grown used to occupying a midfield role, often either out wide on a wing or as the attacking element in a three-man midfield, Quigley sees his versatility as providing a route back into the starting line-up, despite the length of his lay off and incomplete recovery. “I think Fabio, after scoring four in four, has to be the number-one choice, well, I’d start him,” he says. “His record speaks for itself, four goals in four games, you can’t drop someone on a run like that but obviously there are other places on the pitch.
“Whoever gets dropped, obviously it would be hard on them so, to be fair, if I don’t start I won’t be questioning the manager because I’ve only just come back into the team and the lads have done really well. But I’ve felt good in training and I’m glad to have played the full 90 minutes in the (FAI) Cup at the weekend . . . I’ve been feeling good out there and I’d be confident I could step up if I get thrown in at the deep end.”
Quigley points to his record of 45 goals in the past two seasons as evidence he has, when fit, something valuable to offer and the performance of his former team-mate, Birmingham’s Keith Fahey, at Old Trafford on Sunday as further confirmation of the rising standards within the league.
He also points to what he still insists was an unfortunate exit to Hertha Berlin at what was effectively the same stage of this competition 12 months ago as proof St Patrick’s shouldn’t be mistaken for pushovers. “I see their owner or manager or somebody saying that maybe they should all pack it in if they lose to us and from our point of view I think that’s a good attitude for them to take.
“We know it’s going to be a really tough game but if we can keep a clean sheet or one goal or maybe even two I think we’ve a good chance in the RDS.
“I can’t see them being much better than the Russian side (the Uefa rankings suggest he is wrong). Maybe a little better but the Russians were really good and we’ll know in the first half an hour or 45 minutes what we’re up against this time.
“And when you look at Berlin, they finished third or something in the Bundesliga but I thought we should have beaten them. They beat us 2-0 in their place but then we could have beaten them 4-0 here. I thought we were as good as them really.”
The Dubliners have lost players since but the likes of Stuart Byrne and O’Brien have arrived, bringing with them a good deal European experience. The former Shelbourne midfielder, Byrne, for instance, is making his second visit to Steaua this week having been there for his former club’s 4-1 defeat in 2006.
Kenna’s men, however, having done enough to progress in difficult circumstances away from home twice already this summer, won’t be overawed by the empty stands of the Stadionul Ghencea.
