St. Patrick's Athletic boss Liam Buckley was pleased with the 1-0 win over Jeunesse Esch in Richmond Park on Tuesday night – but he believes the Saints will need to improve on their second-half performance to finish off the tie in Luxembourg next week.
Christy Fagan's 10th minute header ensured that Pat's will travel to Esch-sur-Alzette with a lead, but the striker passed up two further opportunities to score in a first-half the hosts dominated. Ian Bermingham and Graham Kelly also missed the target with headers from decent positions before the break.
Esch regrouped in the second-half and almost equalised twice through striker Patrick Stumpf – and with opposition manager Carlo Weis expecting a crowd of 2,000 in the Stade de la Frontière for the return leg, Buckley is aware that it's still all to play for in this Europa League first qualifying round tie.
“No, not really, I thought they'd be where they are. I just expected us to be a bit better, I'll be straight,” Buckley replied when asked by assembled media post-match if Esch had been stronger than anticipated.
Continue reading Liam Buckley's post-match reaction on Extratime.ie.
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