'Fight fire with fire' - Stephen Kenny plotting Istanbul shock for St Patrick's Athletic to reach group stages

Stephen Kenny has urged his players to continue to make memories and drive St Patrick's Athletic into the group stages of the UEFA Conference League.

The Dublin side have progressed to the play-off round of the competition following Thurdsay night's victory over Azerbaijan side Sabah, having previously beaten FC Vaduz in the second qualifying round.

And now Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir stand in their way of securing group football for the first time for St Pat’s, which would extend their season beyond the culmination of the League of Ireland campaign, into December.

Shamrock Rovers have already secured a place in this season’s group stage following their victory over Celje on Thursday, and now Kenny is looking to make it two Irish teams, which would be a first for the league.

Kenny knows that tougher challenges lay ahead, however, he was happy to first savour the away win in Baku after watching his side win both home and away against a side that had dispatched Maccabi Haifa in the previous round.

"I am delighted, really thrilled with the performance, the players were excellent," said Kenny.

"I’m proud of my players. Sabah are a very strong team and for us to win home and away speaks volumes for the efforts of my players, and I applaud them.

"To keep clean sheets in both games, they scored six goals against Maccabi Haifa, and they have the capacity to do that as they have very good attacking players, really top class attacking players.

"We were under a bit of pressure early in the game, but the players showed great calmness and intelligence in their defending, and played out from the back really well.

"Tom Grivosti really opened up the play with Anto Breslin on the left and Romal (Palmer) and Jake (Mulraney) linked well, so