THE IRISH SIDES in Europe experienced differing emotions this evening, as St Patrick’s Athletic secured a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Siroki Brijeg, while Sligo were beaten 3-1 by Spartak Trnava.
The result could have been so much better for Pat’s, had Santos Wagner not capitalised on slack defending to level the scores with a header in the dying seconds.
Liam Buckley’s men had opened the scoring on 12 minutes, when Christy Fagan pounced on a rebound, following John Russell’s rasping shot, to give his side the advantage.
While Pat’s will have been hugely disappointed with the concession of the late goal, they will return to Dublin confident of gaining a positive result in next week’s second leg.
The same cannot be said of Sligo however, as they were comprehensively beaten in Slovakia.
A Miroslov Karhan header gave Spartak the lead on 36 minutes, and Martin Mikovic scored twice on the brink of half-time, with his third goal created by a sloppy Ross Gaynor pass.
Gavin Peers then handed Sligo a consolation in the second half, heading in Danny North’s cross.
But the goal was too little too late for the visitors, as they were left to rue their ten minutes of first-half madness.
