Stephen Kenny: We're gutted to be going out of Europe

St Pat's manager Stephen Kenny said they were "gutted" to exit European competition before the group phase kicked into gear following their 2-0 UEFA Conference League loss away to Istanbul Basaksehir.

Wins over Vaduz and Sabah had taken Pat's to within one round of reaching the group phase of a European competition for the first time and were tied at 0-0 following an encouraging home first leg against the Turkish Super Lig side.

With over an hour gone on Wednesday evening, the tie remained goalless, with nerves beginning to fray around the Istanbul venue.

However, on 64 minutes, the hosts finally broke the deadlock, a deflected cut-back falling to Omer Ali Sahiner who slipped the opener past Joseph Anang.

While Pat's remained threatening on the break, they suffered a further blow when substitute Aaron Bolger was red-carded inside the final 10 minutes, Olivier Kemen subsequently heading home a second to put the tie beyond doubt.

"We're disappointed to go out," Kenny said after the game. "Obviously hugely disappointed. You're obviously going to be up against it here, we were under no illusions.

"But over the two legs, the players were absolutely excellent. We've probably deserved to win last week.

"Tonight, you're going to concede possession at times because they force you back with their inverted full-backs and the runs they make. But we've two great chances in the first half, we didn't capitalise on that. We probably needed to.

"Halfway through the second half, it's nil-all, still in the balance. They've taken the lead and the sending off hasn't helped us with the second goal. We're still in the game at 1-0, as we saw with Brandon Kavanagh's late chance."

As for Pat's European adventure in the round, Kenny trumpeted the home and