Ashworth explains Skonto Visa confusion

SKONTO Riga manager Paul Ashworth has cleared up the confusion in relation to the visas issue that arose ahead of his team's visit to Derry for last night's Europa League match - a lack of PAPER in the British Embassy in Latvia meant that visas for three of his squad could not be printed and placed in their passports!

It was reported that four Skonto players, including the Brazilian Junior Carvalho who scored their goal in the first leg, had been refused visas and could have been reduced to a supporting role in last night's game. Junior did not require a visa, but three players - captain David Gamezardashuili, Ruslan Mingazov and Andrei Agafonov, who both came off the bench - visited the British Embassey in Dublin on their arrival, as a precaution.

Ashworth said: "All the players got Irish visas and then the Irish Embassy said that we also needed British visas as we were coming to play in Derry. There were three players, not four - the Brazilian didn't need a visa. On Monday we went to the British Embassy in Latvia and asked for those visas, but they said to us 'sorry we don't have enough paper to put the visas into the passports'.

"I'm English and I'm embarrassed about it. We contacted UEFA and they said the players could play without visas, provided they were eligible to play in the game. As a precaution we sent the three players to the British Embassy in Dublin and they received the visas. I said all along it wasn't a problem because, UEFA said they could play in the game and there are no border controls here."

Ashworth watched in horror as a monumental error from Germans Malins, who let Kevin Deery's 30-yard effort roll into the bottom corner without so much as a stretch of his arm outward, gifted Derry a one-nil win.

"What I did say to the guys was that even though he (Malins) made a mistake we still needed to score a goal in the tie. It's a team game and the rest of the still needed to score. Even if he hadn't made the mistake and it was nil-nil, we'd have gone out anyway.

"I think if it had been nil-nil towards the end, they would have become more nervous and we might have got something out of the game. Derry played well and good luck to them. I hope they come through the next round against CSKA Sofia, I really do think they're a good team, a good club with a good manager."

Ashworth has no doubt that Derry have the ability to trouble CSKA Sofia next week, but has called on the FAI to aid the Candystripes in their bid for European glory.

He said: "Derry will have an advantage in that CSKA Sofia haven't started their Championship, so I think on that, and after this game Derry will be full of confidence.

"If the FAI are sensible, like our Latvian Federation, then they should really give Derry a chance to get a run in Europe and delay their fixtures until later. If you look at the game with Bohemians last night, they lost in the 86th minute and I think it's no coincidence because Derry and Bohemians played on Sunday. Okay, Derry went through here, but I think now a lot will depend on the League and how they can help Derry by delaying fixtures. I think it's really, really important. Although Derry won today, Bohemians lost and I fully believe that if those two hadn't played on Sunday you'd have had another team through in Europe."