Soccer

St Pat’s beat Sabah in first leg but left to rue missed chances to build lead against 10 men

Romal Palmer’s well-taken goal the difference as St Pat’s must travel to Azerbaijan next week

St Patrick's Athletic's Romal Palmer celebrates scoring. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA
Paul Buttner
Thu Aug 08 2024 - 22:01
Europa Conference League third qualifying round: St Patrick’s Athletic 1 Sabah 0 (Palmer 35)

Romal Palmer’s well-taken first half goal brought St Patrick’s Athletic a rousing victory in the drizzle of Tallaght Stadium.

As welcome as this fully deserved first leg win may be, there was an element of frustration at the final whistle at a missed opportunity as Stephen Kenny’s side could not convert a host of second half chances against 10 men to surely have all but put the tie to bed ahead of the second leg in Azerbaijan next week.

Manager Kenny made just one change from last week’s passage through against FC Vaduz with the experienced Aidan Keena coming in to replace teenager Mason Melia in attack.

Starting with six full internationals in their side as varied as Morocco, Slovakia and Jamaica, along with three Azerbaijanis, the visitors started brightly, threatening St Patrick’s within two minutes from the first corner of the game.

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Jesse Sekidika’s delivery was to the near post where Spaniard Jon Irazabal’s flicked effort was touched on to his left-hand upright by goalkeeper Joseph Anang.

Though St Patrick’s settled, they were stretched on the counterattack from their first corner of the night.

Chris Forrester’s loose pass was intercepted by Sabah skipper Elvin Camalov to send Joy-Lance Mickels away on the left. The ball was worked inside to Pavol Safranko who set up Kaheem Parris only for the Jamaican to blaze wastefully over the top.

St Patrick’s soon grew in confidence once Jake Mulraney brought the first save of the game from Yusif Imanov which triggered a series of corners the Inchicore side made nothing of.

A further corner on 23 minutes did have Sabah flustered, though. Mickels’ partial-clearance from Mulraney’s ball into the area ran for Zack Elbouzedi whose fierce drive was acrobatically tipped over by Imanov.

From that seventh corner, skipper Joe Redmond headed wide as St Patrick’s enjoyed a sustained period of pressure.

A spell of possession that was rewarded on 35 minutes when they deservedly took the lead with a fine goal.

The influential Mulraney was the architect, whipping a terrific cross into the near post for the perfectly timed run of Palmer who got his right foot in front of Soufiane Chakla’s despairing attempt to clear to shoot past Imanov.

It marked back-to-back goals in Europe for Palmer, the English midfielder having scored St Patrick’s second in last week’s 2-2 draw in Liechtenstein.

Melia replaced the ineffective Keena for the second half as St Patrick’s continued to enjoy much of the ball.

That pressure brought a second yellow card and a dismissal for Croatian midfielder Ivan Lepinjica for a foul on Palmer on 52 minutes, Mulraney working a parry save from Imanov with the resulting free kick from the edge of the area.

Revelling in the extra time and space on the ball, Forrester worked an opening for himself to rifle a shot not far wide as St Patrick’s mined for a second goal.

Forrester then raced in behind from the hardworking Jamie Lennon’s ball over the top, but just could not get the telling touch.

The frame of the goal would rescue Sabah on 76 minutes, Redmond left holding his head in his hands after seeing his header from Elbouzedi’s cross come back off a post.

A minute later the stretched Sabah defence needed Irazabal to clear off the line when Melia got a glazing touch to another Elbouzedi ball into the area.

Redmond saw yet another effort flash over the crossbar before he forced the save of the game from Imanov in the 90th minute with another header from Forrester’s cross as that second goal just would not come.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Anang; Sjoberg, Redmond, Grivosti, Breslin; Lennon (Bolger, 88); Mulraney (Leavy, 71), Forrester, Palmer (McClelland, 88), Elbouzedi (B. Kavanagh, 79); Keena (Keena, h-t).

FC Sabah FK: Imanov; Seydiyev, Chakla, Irazabal, Metic; Lepinjica, Sekidika (Aliyev, 82), Camalov; Parris (Dashdamirov, 71), Safranko (Kupusovic, 82), Mickels (Alaskarov, 71).

Referee: Vilhjalmur Thorarinsson (Iceland).