HAVING managed one seemingly unlikely comeback, St Patrick's Athletic will attempt to complete a second this evening at the Tehelne Pole stadium in Bratislava where Brian Kerr will attempt to balance the prospect of stealing victory in this UEFA Cup preliminary round tie with the fear of suffering a substantial defeat.

St Patrick's were 3-0 down by half an hour into the first leg and the tie looked likely to prove a deeply embarrassing one. But last season's National League champions staged a wonderful comeback to finish 4-3 down to gain an outside but real chance of creating one of the upsets of this year's competition.

Manager Brian Kerr, however, is determined not to do anything that might undo last week's fine work this time out and his main priority for this evening's outing remains the maintenance of a respectable look to the scoreline.

"The result last week reflected very well on the National League, as did the Bohemians match and Sligo's performance earlier in the summer. I wouldn't like a situation now where we got badly drubbed and let everyone else down out here," said Kerr.

With a team full of internationals, Slovan Bratislava have scored some fine victories over quality teams in recent seasons but Kerr insists that, on the strength of the first leg, his men have nothing to be frightened about as they go out to play tonight.

"They've taken a lot of joy from the match in Dublin when there wasn't one of our players who looked inferior to any of theirs. We'll have to tighten it up a bit at the back this time and it will certainly be tough for them, but they'll be looking forward to the game and hoping to take whatever chances come their way."

Kerr had been worried about Eddie Gormley, who has been suffering with a minor back injury. But the midfielder, who missed a considerable portion of last season due to injury, is confident of recovering fully in time to play.

Last year's top scorer Ricky O'Flaherty, who scored after coming on in the second half at Richmond Park, may start at the expense of Johnny Glynn this time around. "Leaving Ricky out last time was a hard decision, but then Johnny did well. I'll have to gave it a bit of thought before deciding this time," he said.