Battling St Patrick's Athletic hold Istanbul Basaksehir to keep group stage hopes alive

St Patrick's Athletic battled to a creditable scoreless draw with Istanbul Basaksehir to leave their Conference League play-off tie finely balanced before the return leg on Wednesday.

In front of 6,219 at Tallaght Stadium, the Super Saints were good value for the draw, looking particularly impressive before the half-time break.

St Pat's manager Stephen Kenny stuck to his guns with the side that had delivered the goods in Azerbaijan last time out, and they very nearly delivered an even bigger result for the Inchicore side.

Facing a squad dotted with players who have international experience, Kenny's side took the game to the Turkish outfit, but the goal that their play deserved never arrived.

Saints burst out of the gate, dominating the opening 10 minutes, and putting their fancied opponents under pressure, and they had a massive chance to take the lead on four minutes as Mason Melia got on the end of a Zack Elbouzedi cross from the right, but his header flashed wide of the left post.

Sixteen-year-old Melia was involved again a few minutes later as he held up a Chris Forrester pass, before laying it back to Jake Mulraney; his effort from just inside the box was always rising.

Forrester, who was talking of finding form again in the build up to the game, then went close after the Turks had cleared a corner, as the midfielder cut in from the right and tried to pick his spot in the far left corner, but it had a bit too much on it.

Basaksehir, who reached the last 16 of this competition in 2023, gradually began to grow into the contest, but it would take until the 20th minute for them to bring a save out of Joseph Anang.

Again, the chance came from a corner as St Pat's cleared the ball out left. Denis Turuc, who has played 12 times