Ten minutes to go, o ye of little faith. Seven of their eight goals in Europe this season have, after all, come in the last 12 minutes. Manager Pat Fenlon, banished to the directors' box for the night, wore a "tell me about it" look. "I wish they were in the first 12 minutes, it'd save me a few grey hairs, but I'll take them any time I suppose," he said.

"It was a decent second half, but the first half was very poor. Whether I was on the bench or in the stands makes no difference, there's not much you can do, it's frustrating either way.

"We missed the lads who didn't play tonight (the suspended Alan Moore and Stuart Byrne), we missed them badly, their presence makes a big difference for us in Europe. We stood off them too much in the first half, gave them too much time on the ball, We got punished for it and should have been punished more.

"We could have snuck it in the end but that probably would have been robbery, we were lucky to be only two down at half-time, we just didn't play well."

Banned again for the second leg?

"Yeah, I'll probably be in Paris somewhere watching it on telly," he grinned.

Glen Fitzpatrick had a night he's unlikely to forgot. He recalled the events in the last nine minutes with modesty, though.

"I just went on to give Jason (Byrne) a dig out, with two of us up there it was an extra target man to hit. I suppose it paid dividends in the end, getting the two goals.

"It's all to play for now. We created chances, Jason was a bit unlucky in the first half, the keeper pulled off a great save, but we know we can split them open, get the lads in midfield on the ball and create more chances. It's there for us in the second leg to go at them."

"We just dropped off them too much in the first half, gave them too much respect," said Wes Hoolahan, "but Eamon (Collins) gave us a good team-talk at half-time, told us to close them down, pressurise them and keep hold of the ball. It seemed to work, great goals by Glen.

"They dominated the first half, created a lot of chances, they probably should have been three or 4-0 up, but fair play to us, we got back in to it. We should be a lot stronger in midfield in the second leg with Alan Moore and Stuart Byrne coming back so we'll go over with a lot of confidence."

"It was just a disastrous first half, we just couldn't get it together, we were playing football in the wrong areas, we let ourselves down, I thought," said Jim Crawford.

"But second half we came out fighting and we looked the part at times, although I still think we can play a hell of a lot better. But once the tie is still alive that's all that matters.

"Eamon did the business at half-time, gave a great pep talk, exactly what we needed, which was a kick in the backside. Now? Well, we know we just have to go over there and win.

"We'll still be cautious, we won't be going out all guns blazing, we'll take it easy and hopefully everything turns out."

And what about Fitzpatrick's contribution? "Glen said to me yesterday that he was really up for this - I started laughing at him, but he really was!"