INTERTOTO CUP/Gent 2 St Patrick's Athletic 0: Alexandros Kaklamanos scored twice to leave Gent confident of completing their passage to the third round of the InterToto Cup when they come to Richmond Park on Saturday for the second leg of this second round tie.
St Patrick's Athletic could scarcely have had a worse possible start as they conceded the opening goal inside the first minute.
Right back Mladen Krizanovic's long ball over the top caught the St Patrick's defence napping and Greek Kaklamanos, the club's top scorer with 17 goals last season, raced in to force the ball past goalkeeper Shay Kelly.
Gent scored their second goal from a set-piece on 66 minutes. Ibrahim Faye delivered a free-kick and Kaklamanos got a flick to send the ball past Kelly for a second time.
St Patrick's will draw solace from the fact they had several chances to get a crucial away goal, the best of which was spurned late on by Tony Bird when through one-on-one with Gent goalkeeper Olivier van Impe.
KAA Gent: van Impe; Krizanovic (Hosny h/t), Banic, Pedersen, Faye, Schepens; Hempte, De Deker, Kraouche (Verbrugghe 87); Oyawole, Kaklamanos.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: S Kelly; Croly, Maguire, Foley, Burke; Donnelly, Osam, Mbabazi (Hughes 77), Russell; Bird, McCarthy.
Referee: J Jara (Czech Republic).
