Reality overtook romance at Tolka Park last evening as St Patrick's Athletic discovered yet again that the priorities of European football are still firmly weighted against League of Ireland clubs.
Having fought the good fight at Parkhead and restricted Celtic to a scoreless draw at the end of a constant battering, there was just a sliver of hope that the Dubliners could again defy football logic and survive to the next qualifying round of the European Champions' league.
Like so many others before them, however, they discovered that it is considerably easier to defend than attack at this level, and goals from Harald Brattbakk and Henrick Larssen accurately portrayed the difference between the teams on the night.
Expectations that the urgency of the challenge would extract a suitable response from the Irish side were shown to be hopelessly misplaced, and once Brattbakk had fired the Scots into the lead after just 12 minutes, a heavy sense of inevitability settled on the game.
Unwilling or unable to commit players to advanced positions, St Patrick's were always second best after that. It was Celtic who created the better chances before Larssen, at the highpoint of a chequered performance, ensured that all the escape routes were closed off to the losers.
That Brattbakk should deliver the first goal was vaguely ironic, for the pre-match speculation was that he would be left out to facilitate the inclusion of Darren Jackson. In the event, it was Stephane Mahe who went out to facilitate Jackson's inclusion and the Norwegian stayed to make a major input into the game.
Stubbs, seldom less than imperious at the centre of Celtic's defence, projected the towering cross to the edge of the six-yard area, and Brattbakk, doing everything by the book, took the ball inside Paul Campbell's tackle before tucking the shot away at the near post.
Pat Dolan had gambled on Campbell's greater experience to the exclusion of Keith Doyle's emerging talent, and it was not until half time, at a stage when the game was set on an irreversible course, that he decided to summon the youngster, who was just back from Ireland's European escapade in Cyprus.
Campbell wasn't the only player who struggled to repeat the heroics of Parkhead. Paul Osam, so strong in the original game, wasn't nearly as effective in fronting the back four on this occasion, and Eddie Gormley, on whom so much depended in midfield, was largely ineffective. And with Thomas Morgan, on in place of Martin Russell, also toiling to get to the pitch of the game, St Patrick's were never in a position to mount concerted pressure on the opposition.
That, perhaps, should be interpreted as a measure of Celtic's strength in the pivotal battle for midfield control rather than an indictment of the home sides' lack of ambition. But the end product was a largely one-sided game in which the threat to the Scots was at all times remote.
In victory, they will attribute much of the credit to Burley and Paul Lambert, the two dominant personalities in midfield, and the mercurial Larssen who, like Regi Blinker and Jackie McNamara, turned up in the most unlikely places.
Appropriately, it was Blinker who set up the chance for Larssen's goal with the perceptive pass in the 72nd minute, and the Swede took full advantage to take the ball past Trevor Wood and then, from the widest of angles, put it in the empty net.
In that moment it was all over for St Patrick's, worthy ambassadors for Irish football in Glasgow but now strangely out of sorts on the evening when it mattered most.
Sadly for St Patrick's, the differences between this and last week's gritty stand were illustrated right from the start. True, we sensed we had seen it all before when Trevor Wood was perfectly placed to hold Craig Burley's long-range shot, but from that point the parallel was lost.
It didn't help, of course, that Brattbakk, anonymous to the point of withdrawal in the original game, hurled his thunderbolt after only 12 minutes, and in that moment history had ensnared another Irish club side.
Malcolm Mackay, tracking back diligently, produced an impressive turn of pace to deny Leon Braithwaite, but that was a rare moment of aggression which merely emphasised the iron grip Celtic had imposed on midfield.
Brattbakk, on the burst, failed to beat Wood from close range, and the Irish side had again reason to feel reprieved when Larssen, put in the clear by another superb Burley pass, hesitated just long enough to enable Pakie Lynch to make the decisive tackle.
It was scarcely the kind of plot the romantics had scripted, and the Dubliners were fortunate not to have conceded a second goal when Stubbs' back-heel took a shot by Burley on to the foot of a post.
The effect, briefly, was to galvanise a team which could simply never get enough momentum going to hustle the Scots into anything approaching serious error. With Larssen's goal, St Patrick's knew for certain that they had reached the end of the road.
St Patrick's Athletic: Wood; Clarke, Hawkins, Lynch, Campbell (Doyle 45), Morgan (Russell 54), Osam, Gormley, Molloy; Braithwaite, Gilzean (Reilly 75).
Celtic: Gould; Stubbs, Mackay, Boyd; McNamara, Lambert, Burley, Blinker (McKinlay 75); Jackson (Donnelly 67); Larssen, Brattbakk.
Referee: M Vuoperola (Finland)
Seamus Kelly, the UCD goalkeeper, is to join Cardiff City. Kelly, whose brother, Padraig plays with the Offaly Gaelic football team, was an ever-present for the university club last season.
Long recognised as one of the most consistent goalkeepers in the National League, Kelly has been honoured at "B" level by the Republic of Ireland.
