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 away wins against the Azerbaijanis in the last phase, though said the pain of missing out in the final round would linger.
"It's difficult to analyse because we're so gutted about tonight. They've been brilliant against Vaduz, to score five goals - unbelievable. Two clean sheets against Sabah and they go through. A highly regarded team, €12 million budget, a really serious team.
"Tonight, you see by the celebrations here, the relief of getting over the line against us. Because they know that over the 180 minutes, they've been in a really tough tie between the two legs."
A visibly disappointed Jamie Lennon stressed afterwards that while they faced long stretches out of possession in Istanbul, they were still right in the mix until the late sending off.
"I thought at half-time, they might have had the bulk of possession but I thought we had the two best chances early on in the game. We came in at half-time, spoke about how we were still well in the game.
"Even when we went 1-0 down, we're still hopeful we can get another chance because we've proven we can get chances against them. But once the sending off happens, it becomes much more difficult after that.
"A tough one to take in the end."
Their European journey in 2024 at an end, it's back to the more (twice-) weekly grind of the Premier Division, where Pat's are currently down in seventh place, albeit, in a tightly congested league, only eight points off third spot and with a game in hand.
With a European spot far from out of the question, Lennon is hopeful the Inchicore club will bring their form on the continent back to the domestic sphere.
"Other than the result, I enjoyed tonight. Proper stadium, proper fans. Our away fans were brilliant. The pitch was great. Good opposition. To play in Europe and challenge yourself against the elite teams in Europe is what I want to do. It was difficult at times tonight but really enjoyable as well.
"Five games unbeaten in Europe was great. We wanted to make it six tonight and get through to the groups but it wasn't to be.
"But this'll give us great confidence going into the last nine games in the league campaign. We've still got things to fight for. You look at the performances there and there's no reason we can't bring that into the games, starting on Sunday."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
