Karpaty Lviv 2 St Patrick's Ath 0: ST PATRICK'S Athletic will have to improve on their previous Europa League heroics at home next week if they are to make the play-off round of the competition following last night's defeat at the Ukrayina stadium in Lviv.
Around 15,000 locals as well as a small travelling support watched as Karpaty, who dominated the game, capitalised on some poor defending to take the lead 11 minutes before the break, with right back Artem Fedetskiy tapping home from a couple of yards.
Many had probably already left the ground, however, by the time the home side got their second.
With the game well into the third and last minute of the scheduled added time, the Swedish referee controversially penalised Evan McMillan for what he believed to have been a foul on Yaroslav Voronkov.
Igor Oshchypko forced a decent save from Gary Rogers from the free but the ball fell kindly for Voronkov, who steered it home from close range as the Irish players vainly appealed for offside. The shot was virtually the last kick of the game.
The late goal was a major blow to Pete Mahon’s men, who have overturned single goal deficits in each of the previous two rounds. This time, playing in Tallaght rather than Richmond Park, they will face opponents who have travelled knowing they are in a strong position to progress.
The Ukrainians will take confidence too from the extent to which they dictated the course of the first leg.
The hosts won a succession of free kicks and corners and Rogers was kept far busier than his counterpart, Martin Bogatinov.
The visitors did generate the odd chance but Mahon readily admitted afterwards his side had been second best, with the manager’s only complaint concerning the manner in which the scale of their task next Thursday had been compounded so late on.
“They were the better team, very good,” he acknowledged. “They had a lot of possession of the ball, as you would expect. They were very good technically; they had good movement of the ball and good rotation. But we kept going and had one or two chances.
“We put in some effort because it was very, very warm. In that heat we could have made five or six substitutions. I keep saying it every week but it was a tremendous effort, especially when you consider we had to play on Saturday so we didn’t get too much help.
“But I can understand Pat Fenlon’s frustration with the referee in Slovenia now because we’ve suffered as well,” he said.
“It’s sickening because it came in the 93rd minute and the three minutes were just up. After they scored, we restarted and the final whistle blew.
“It was never a free kick. If anything he (Voronkov) leaned into Evan but he went down like a ton of bricks screaming and I’m convinced your man was offside when he scored because he was right on the line. It will be interesting to see it on DVD.
“But there’s no use in feeling sorry for ourselves because nobody else will,” he continued. “We have to get over it and bounce back which we’ve done before.”
Mahon insisted that neither he nor his players would give up on the tie but he admitted that they face something of an uphill task next Thursday.
“It would have been very interesting to bring them back to Dublin at 1-0 but 2-0 makes it that bit harder,” he said.
“We’ll have to be a bit more adventurous. It will be interesting if we score first and we have won 2-0 at home in the last two rounds but these are a step up from what we have faced.”
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Rogers; Pender, E McMillan, Shorthall, Bermingham; McFaul, Mulcahy; Murphy (Crowley, 65 mins), Daly (Carroll, 72 mins), Doyle; North (D McMillan, 46 mins).
Referee: Martin Strömbergsson (SWE)
