St Patrick's Ath -v- IBV

• Simon O'Gorman
• Thu, Jul 07 2011


European football returns to Richmond Park on Thursday night as IBV Vestmannaeyjar arrive from Iceland with a 1-0 lead over St Patrick’s Athletic in their Europa League, first qualifying round tie. (Kick off, 7.45pm)

Pete Mahon’s side went down to a second half penalty scored by Andri Olafsson in Reykjavik last week but St Pats will be quietly confident of progressing to the next round. But Mahon has been quick to point out the quality of the opposition.

"Our opponents are a good team and people should be under no illusions about that”, he said. “We will have to be at our very best to beat them but that's what we want to do because we intend on staying in this competition. From what I've seen of them I know that we can create chances against them. What we have to be careful of though, is that we don't concede the away goal.”

Mahon has three injury doubts for Thursday’s game with Dave Mulcahy, Stephen Bradley and Derek Pender all uncertain of being fit. Mulcahy is the biggest doubt having played through a knee injury for several weeks before a calf strain, picked up against Shamrock Rovers on Sunday, adding to his woes. Bradley is suffering from a tooth abscess while defender Derek Pender has a bruised instep but has trained this week and is expected to make the cut.

Pats have one of the league’s most impressive records in Europe over the past few seasons. In 2008 Pats won through two rounds of the UEFA Cup, beating JFK Olimps (Latvia) and Elfsborg (Sweden) before going down 2-0 on aggregate to german side Hertha Berlin.

In 2009, Valletta of Malta and Krylia Sovetov of Russia were overcome before they were knocked out by Staeua Bucharest. But perhaps the most significant statistic is that Pats were unbeaten at Richmond Park during these campaigns although they did lose ‘at home’ to Staeua, losing 2-1 at the RDS.

Keeping IBV scoreless on Thursday will be key to the Inchicore side’s hopes of making it to the next round. So far this season Pat’s have kept four clean sheets in their ten home league games with two shutouts having been secured from their last three league outings.

St Patrick’s Athletic
Injured: Conor Kenna.
Doubtful: Stephen Bradley, Dave Mulcahy, Derek Pender.
Suspended: None.

IBV (Iceland)
Injured: None.
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: None.

Referee: Nerijus Dunauskas.
Paddy Power Odds: St Pats 8/15; Draw 13/5; IBV 9/2.
Extratime prediction: A 1-0 win for Pats over 90 minutes with a penalty shootout deciding the winner.