Odense BK 5 St Patrick's Athletic 0: History repeated itself in Odense last night as a League of Ireland side endured a nightmare at the hands of the Danish side. Twelve months ago Shelbourne slumped to a 3-0 defeat and it was the turn of St Patrick's to feel the heat. Any hopes St Patrick's had were put to bed when the hosts had three goals before the break.
The loss of Michael Keane after just 15 minutes didn't help matters, but there was no doubt of the gulf between the two sides.
Kim Christensen landed a brace and Jonas Borring bagged the other. Either side of those blemishes Hans Andreasen and Peter Nymann also scored. "We needed to keep it tight," admitted manager Johnny McDonnell afterwards. "We kept it tight early on, but losing Michael Keane was bad. Some of our lads just didn't do their jobs a 100 per cent on the set-pieces . . . But in the overall picture I think we kept the ball well in the game."
Odense's cause wasn't helped by the late withdrawals of the Brazilian Bechara and Johan Absalonsen. The two had a major influence on proceedings at Richmond Park two weeks ago.
Alan Kirby would have liked to have done the same, but he was slotted into the left side of midfield, a move that would help the visitors' attacking options no end.
After Keane's withdrawal Billy Gibson moved into midfield and Dave Rogers to right back, a move that seemed to unsettle the visitors. They had looked comfortable for the first quarter of an hour, but over the next quarter they conceded twice. On 20 minutes Andreasen had put Odense ahead when he latched on to Mads Timm's scoffed shot. Barry Ryan will have been disappointed as he got a hand to the ball. He would have been even more disheartened nine minutes later when he and Stephen Brennan got in a mix-up to concede a corner. From it Christensen headed home.
St Patrick's didn't learn from their mistake because on the stroke of half-time they fell further behind to a carbon copy of the second goal as Borring powered the ball past a helpless Ryan.
After the break the calamities continued as Stephen Paisley and Dave Rogers hesitated at another free-kick and Christensen easily dispatched to the net. Nymann unleashed a screamer from 25 yards with two minutes left.
ODENSE: Onyszko; Helveg (Troest, 46), A Christensen, Laurson, Sorensen; Bolaños (Radonjic, 68), Hansen, Andreasen (Nymann, 77), Borring; K Christensen, Timm.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Ryan; Gibson, Maguire, Brennan, Rogers; Murphy (O'Connor, 58), Fahey, Keane (Paisley, 16), Kirby, M Quigley (M Foley, 77); Guy.
Referee: Bernie Raymond Blom (Neth).
