Stephen Kenny: 'We're still very much in the tie'

Stephen Kenny says his side will be underdogs going into Wednesday's second leg of their Conference League play-off tie with Istanbul Basaksehir, but the St Patrick's Athletic manager says his side's impressive draw with the Turks will give his players belief.

On a miserably wet night at Tallaght Stadium, it was the SSE Airtricity League outfit who looked more like scoring as they took the game to a side who were playing Champions League soccer just four years ago.

Mason Melia flashed an early header wide, while Kian Leavy was desperately unlucky to see his strike come back off the post after the break.

The visitors, featuring a side with Ghanaian, Greek and Turkish internationals, took 20 minutes to really settle into the game, and even then they rarely threatened Joseph Anang's goal on a memorable night for the Saints.

"We're disappointed not to have won it," Kenny said afterwards.

"But obviously they're a high quality team with some tremendous players. I thought my players were brilliant [and] we're pleased with our display overall.

"We'd a high risk strategy, pushing our full-backs right up on their wingers, and we absolutely matched them all over the park - we were utterly dominant in that period [the first half].

"Even though they have so many high calibre players, I don't really feel we conceded a chance on goal, of note.

"Kian Leavy's effort is just outstanding. [He] beat two players and cracked it off the inside of the post.

"The early chances with Mason and Jake [Mulraney] were close. There wasn't loads of clear cut chances in the game but it was utterly compelling tactically.

"We had to match them all over the park and we would have liked to win to take a lead over to Turkey."

It's a quick turnaround now for Pat's, who