Valletta FC -v- St. Patrick's Athletic

• Eoin Manning
• Wed, Jul 22 2009


St.Patrick’s Athletic welcome back midfielder Damien Lynch from suspension ahead of tomorrow’s Europa League 2nd qualifying round 2nd leg encounter with Valletta FC of Malta at The Centenary Stadium with the scores even at one all following last week’s eventful encounter at Richmond Park (Kick Off: 4:30 PM).

The Dubliners looked set to establish a comfortable lead to take into the return leg following Declan O’Brien’s first half opener but a surprisingly abject second half performance saw them allow Valetta back in to the tie and claim a vital away goal and Pat’s must score to have any chance of progressing.

The early evening sun (the game starts at 5:30PM local time) is sure to be a factor as Pat’s look to progress, a factor manager Jeff Kenna is only too aware of: “The heat will obviously be a factor and we’ll need to adjust how we play to cope with that. Hopefully as the game goes on and into the second half it will cool off considerably.”

But the wily competitor is no stranger to European football having represented Blackburn Rovers of the English Premiership in both the Champions League and The Europa League (or as it was then known the UEFA Cup) and feels his side will have learned quickly from last week’s mistakes: “We’ve prepared well, we’ve looked at the last week’s match and I think we’ve learned quite a bit from that. Of course the onus will be on us to score on the night but I’m confident that we can create plenty of chances and once we are creating chances we can score.”

Given that several first-team players are sidelined through long-term injury Kenna will be delighted to welcome back the experience and calm of Lynch in the centre of the midfield, and Lynch is likely to be the only change to the eleven that started the first leg against the team from the Maltese capital.

While the Saint’s are boosted by the return of a player from suspension; Valetta will be without their dangerous striker Njongo Priso who picked up his second yellow card of the competition a week ago.

Valletta go in to the game as favourites due to captain Gilbert Agius’s invaluable away goal, but Kenna’s men dominated possession for long spells at Richmond Park and further prolonged spells in control coupled with a little more cutting edge could see the Inchicore club pull off a memorable victory.

The heat will undoubtedly play its part in the proceedings and with extra-time and penalties potentially looming, Kenna and his players will want to get the job done inside the 90 minutes.