Asked to gauge the difference between Irish sides and their Scandinavian counterparts in advance of last night's UEFA Cup qualifying round second leg at Tolka Park, Dermot Keely had talked about 10 years but narrowing.

After a game which the Danes strolled through and might have won by more, but for some careless finishing late on, you could only presume he'd been talking about light years.

And, as for the gap being reduced, well, there was little evidence of it here.

Keely had said that his side needed to score early on if they were to have any serious chance of progressing and so the locals went into the match positively enough.

Far from getting a goal, though, last year's early slip-up against Rosenborg was instead repeated and so a game that might have at least produced a contest was quickly drained of any real excitement as Aage Hareide's men took complete control of the encounter thanks to Ruben Bagger's memorable volley from a couple of yards inside the area.

The Dubliners, now needing four to progress and at least one to restore some pride, kept their heads down and, on a much tighter pitch than the one in Copenhagen, attempted to substantially change the pattern of the game.

While everything was far more closely fought than a fortnight ago, Brondby began to show that they were well able to mix it with their Irish opponents on whatever terms were required and, as they had at home, they gradually settled into a rather comfortable pattern of conceding territory and then breaking downfield with considerable pace.

Shelbourne, then, had their chances with Davy Byrne, Garry Haylock, Peter Hutton and Owen Heary all producing strikes of reasonable quality in the first period.

All, though, were from outside the box and none actually hit the target, something the visitors must have been justifiably satisfied with as they wandered in for the break.

Not long after they returned, however, their comfort zone was finally breached. Pat Fenlon, on for Brian Byrne, played a ball as bad as the many misdirected ones we'd seen in the first half from the home side. The difference this time was that Per Nielsen's attempt to control it was worse and suddenly Richie Foran was one on one with the goalkeeper.

The youngster delayed his shot but the vastly experienced Mogens Frogh stood up well before saving the Dubliner's low driven shot with his outstretched foot.

It was a severe blow for the locals who seemed unlikely to have as good a chance again, and worse quickly followed as the corner that resulted from the save was cleared to Peter Madsen who set off upfield.

His through ball for Bagger looked to have set up Brondby's second of the night but the 29-year-old striker somewhat surprisingly chose to slip the ball inside to Mads Jorgensen on his left instead and, while Jorgensen looked offside to just about everybody else, the well-placed linesman kept his flag down.

No matter, the visitors weren't all that wildly flattered by a lead they then further extended with 13 minutes remaining. As the Shelbourne defence disintegrated again, Mads Jorgensen's cross was headed down by Bagger for Madsen whose tap-in from close range left Williams enraged with the protection he had been afforded.

It wouldn't be the last time that Williams had cause to complain and late on there might well have been a couple more for the Welshman to pick out of his nets.

"I wouldn't blame the lads for the last 15 minutes, though," remarked a less bubbly than usual Keely afterwards, "because when you're three down at that stage the other side is just knocking it around for sport. After the first goal I thought the heads went down, though, and I was disappointed that there wasn't a bit more fight in them at that stage."

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Gannon, McCarthy, Minnock; R Baker (Dempsey, 73 mins), D Byrne, Hutton, B Byrne (Fenlon, half-time); Haylock (Fitzpatrick, half-time), Foran.

Brondby: Krogh; Johansen, Rasmussen, Nielsen, Skarbalius; Niznik (Lindrup, 62 mins), Jogensen, Nordin, Jonson (Jensen, 75 mins); Bagger, Madsen (Degn, 81 mins).

Referee: Y Kliuchnikov (Russia).