Pat's do all but score

St Patrick's Athletic 0 Hertha Berlin 0 (0-2 agg):St Patrick's Athletic have failed in their bid to make history and reach the Uefa Cup proper after being held to 0-0 draw by Hertha Berlin, despite a very impressive performance against the German side at the RDS.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg in the Olympic Stadium a fortnight ago Pat's had a tough task ahead but met it head on and on another the night their fans may have been saluting a heroic performance.

John McDonnell's side hit the post twice, forced a number of saves from the visiting goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny and had a perfectly valid penalty appeal waved away.

Berlin were set up to counter-attack and at times did so effectively. Had they someone rather than Andriy Voronin up front they too could have hit the net or even forced more than one meaningful save out of Barry Ryan.

Hertha were in no obvious hurry to kill the tie off, but two early Voronin efforts served notice of that they would be a danger on the break.

Pat's were keen to get an early goal but they didn't panic and plotted the early stages carefully. As the half wore on Ryan Guy on the right wing proved a handful and battled for everything in the air and on the ground.

The American's tenacity was enough to win a free-kick on the byline and a corner on another occasion but the set-piece delivery from the Keith Fahey was poor early on.  One such delivery, however, should have led to a penalty when Fabian Lustenberger's stray arm helped deflect the ball to safety at the near post.

Despite early jitters over the dead-ball Fahey was ever-present and at times showed an array of passing worthy of the opposition.  His chip down the right wing to Quigley when under pressure led to the best Pat's chance of the half.

Quigley, shadowed by Simunic, controlled the ball well with his back to goal before a clever turn and shuffle left the experienced Croat on his backside.  The striker's excellent ball to the back post found Gary Dempsey but the midfielder's header was turned away by Drobny.

The crowd were on the feet moments later when Quigley was put through by Alan Kirby's header but the former was offside.

It all looked positive for Pat's but a moment of magic from Raffael allowed him to slide the ball through to Lukasz Piszczek who rounded Ryan but found the angle too tight too finish from in the 44th minute.

Ryan was called into action immediately after the break when Cicero ran at the Pat's defence and unleashed a fierce drive that the goalkeeper had to parry. Voronin looked to pounce but was flagged offside.

The Ukrainian looked sure to put the tie beyond reach minutes later but showed why he has yet to score for his new side when he blazed a left foot volley into the stands from 10 yards out.

Pat's were taking more risks at this stage and Fahey was beginning to dictate much of the play. The Dubliner watched his left-footed daisy-cutter come back off the post after drifting inside Cicero and then released Guy down the right only to see the winger's effort saved by Drobny.

Pat's refused to let the heads drop and after Quigley almost stole in to finish a neat move, the subsequent corner found its way to Dempsey. The midfielder controlled the dropping ball and volleyed against the post, leaving McDonnell holding his head in disbelief with 15 minutes to go.

The task grew harder for Pat's when Damien Lynch was shown his second yellow card for a tired, rather than malicious, tackle on Cicero, but the referee had little choice given the proximity to goal. Voronin promptly missed the target.

Substitute John Murphy, on for Glenn Fitzpatrick, missed a chance at the death when he rose to meet another Fahey free, but the only consolation for Pat's comes in the fact that they were the better side on the night and leave this year's competition with head's held high.

St Patrick's Athletic: Ryan; Lynch, Harris, Gavin, Rogers; Guy, Dempsey (O'Cearruill 90), Fahey, Kirby (O'Brien 79), Quigley, Fitzpatrick (Murphy 79).

Hertha Berlin: Drobny; Friedrich, Simunic, Von Bergen; Chahed, Lustenberger (Dardai 70), Cicero, Nicu; Piszczek (Stein 90), Voronin, Raffael (Domychysky 65)