St. Patrick's Athletic travel to Ukraine to take on Karpaty Lviv in the Europa League third round first leg on Thursday evening hoping to advance to the Play-off round of the competition. Kick-off 5.30pm (Irish time).

The Saints have reached the Play-off round once before in 2009/2010 when they lost to Steaua Bucharest of Romania. If Pete Mahon’s side are to get a result in Ukraine they will have to do so without two of their star performers this season, midfielder Stephen Bradley who has captained the side this year in the absence of club captain Conor Kenna, and forward Daryl Kavanagh. Both players are suspended having received two yellow cards in the competition so far.

On the injury front there is better news for the Saints as the aforementioned Kenna made his long awaited comeback against Sligo Rovers in the league on Saturday night playing 69 minutes. The question for Pete Mahon will be whether his captain is fit enough to play two games in 5 days having spent such a lengthy spell on the side lines. There are no other injury worries for the Inchicore side.

”It will be hard to fill Tallaght (where the second leg is to be played) unless we keep the game alive, that will be a tall order over there because the further you go in this completion the better the opposition is, it will be a tough tie for us", Saints manager Pete Mahon said.

"At the back Conor Kenna and Shane Guthrie did very well up in Sligo but I think this game will require fitness levels that the lads are just a bit short of at the moment. We are lucky that we could rest Evan (McMillan) completely on Saturday and leave Brian Shortall on the bench but they'll both come in and start tomorrow."

"The side we're facing are not very well known at home but they have a quality team and are a big step up from the previous rounds. That's what happens though when you progress in Europe though and it's probably the reason why no Irish team has made the breakthrough yet. We're hoping to do that but it will be a massive task for us."

The Saints opponents Karpaty Lviv played in the group stages of this competition last season and are not only favourites to win in the 29,000 capacity Ukrayina Stadium in Lviv tomorrow, but also to advance to the next round.

At the time of writing 65% of respondents to a poll on their official website www.fckarpaty.lviv.ua/en believe that the Ukrainians will win convincingly but we will have to wait and see what happens in Lviv on Thursday.

Next Fixture

Derry City / April 22nd @ 7:45pm
Competition: League
Venue: Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium
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Team	Pld	Pts
Shelbourne	11	21
Bohemian FC	11	19
Shamrock Rovers	10	18
Derry City	11	16
St Patrick's Athletic	11	15
Galway United FC	10	14
Sligo Rovers	10	13
Waterford FC	11	13
Drogheda United	10	8
Dundalk	11	5