Fenlon lavishes praise on his players

UEFA Champions League - reaction: Swamped by journalists barely 15 minutes after his side had impressively played their way to a lucrative encounter with last year's semi-finalists in this year's third qualifying round of the Champions League, Pat Fenlon was considering whether Hajduk Split had been the best side he had come up against as a player or manager in European competition, and he seemed to be stuck on the Bs.

"Eh, Brondby, Bordeaux, Steaua Bucharest . . . mmm, dunno, I've faced some good teams down the years," he said finally. None of those earlier encounters, he didn't need to add, had had such a happy ending.

Last night's, he insisted, was down to a group of players who have been moulded into an increasingly impressive team by Fenlon.

"It's their night," he said quietly, "a reward for all the hard work they put in last year to qualify, the great comeback in Reykjavik and then tonight. It's brilliant for them, and personally I'm delighted, of course, because I don't think I've had any bigger nights in my career to be honest."

A potentially bigger one is now scheduled to follow next week when Deportivo La Coruna come to Dublin, and there was talk immediately of switching the game to a bigger venue.

"I hope it's here," smiled Fenlon. "I'd give us a chance against them here, but I wouldn't like to go to a big open pitch to play a side like that."

On this occasion he could take credit for a good deal on a great night, but none at all for either of the goals, with the first coming from an almost freakishly brilliant left-footed volley by Dave Rogers, and the second, very late on, being engineered by Joseph Ndo's clever footwork out on the right after which the Cameroon international set up Alan Moore for the tap in.

Fenlon and his assistant, Eamonn Collins, laughed as they admitted they had been yelling at the newly-signed African to take the ball into the corner to waste time, when he turned instead to beat two defenders on his way into the area.

As for Rogers, he insisted the Englishman had hinted at such marvels on the training ground. Somebody should have told Rogers, for just yards away the man in question was denying just that.

Towards the end of an emotional and chaotic press conference, a Croatian journalist asked Fenlon what he thought of Hajduk, and despite all the complaints about Shelbourne's supposedly rough tactics a week ago in Split by people who should known better, he was magnanimous in victory.

"They're a good side, plenty of quality, but I think our second goal over there rattled them, left them worrying about what might happen the longer the game went on here without a goal. The bottom line, though, is that we put them out, tonight is about us."