Rogers continues Saints tour of Europe

Bohermeen man Gary Rogers continues his tour of Europe this week with a trip to Romania following brief visits to Russia and Malta last month in the new-look UEFA competition, the Europa League. However, Friday night's FAI Cup fourth round scoreless draw at Gortakeegan, or Century Homes Park as it has been branded, against Monaghan Utd would hardly be described as the ideal preparation for St Patrick's Athletic as they prepare for another big European assignment against Steau Bucharest on Thursday night. Rogers is under no illusions about the size of the task facing the League of Ireland side, the last surviving Irish club in Europe, but he is thankful that the FAI Cup replay which was originally scheduled for Monday night has been postponed. "We could have won the game against Monaghan, but then they had a late chance so I suppose it's good to still be in the competition, thankfully the replay was rescheduled until after the Europa League games," Rogers told the Meath Chronicle on Monday prior to his departure for eastern Europe. The former Meath GAA player has already enjoyed two successful away trips with the Inchicore side this season, a trip to the sunshine island of Malta for the first round followed by long trek to Russia for the second round against Krylya Sovetov where St Pat's fought back from 1-3 down on aggregate to go through on away goals. "Our recovery in the second leg against Krylya Sovetov will take a bit of beating by another Irish team, but it won't count for anything if we don't get a result in Romania this week," commented Rogers. There was a crowd of about 15,000 at the game against Krylya Sovetov, but the game in Romania will be played in an empty stadium. Following crowd trouble and racial chants by their supporters in the last round against Scottish side Motherwell, Steau were ordered to play their next two home games in Europe behind closed doors. "The empty stadium will be a little bit eerie, but it won't be any disadvantage to us," suggested Rogers. "Some of our players have played there before and they don't have anything good to say about it, I think Shelbourne might have had problems there in the past. "Krylya Sovetov were a very good team, but once we got the first goal, which made it 2-3 on aggregate, it brought us back into the contest and they began to show some nerves. "Obviously, they were a little bit worried that we would get a second goal which would put us in front on aggregate and it duly arrived. "Once that goal went in I was fairly confident that we would hold out because they resorted to pumping long balls down the centre. "I went out and caught the ball or our defence dealt with it, we handled the situation well in the last 10 minutes although they created a few half chances. "Declan O'Brien has really hit a rich vein of form since he arrived here from Dundalk, I mean four goals in four European games is a fine achievement for any player. "I'd say that it must be some sort of a record for a League of Ireland player anyway to score in four consecutive games, hopefully he can maintain that form this week and the following week at the RDS for the second leg," he added. St Pat's qualified for the second round the hard way as they had conceded an away goal against Valletta at Richmond Park and then went out there and stole a late winner in the heat and humidity at the Centenary Stadium. "Over in Malta the heat was something else, Valletta played the game at 5.0 in the evening which was when the heat was at its worst and the pitch wasn't great either, the surface was poor," recalled Rogers. "We dominated the game for most of the 90 minutes, but we had to score to get through as they had an away goal from the game in Richmond Park, thankfully we made it and then got through against the Russian team. "It won't be easy against Steau, but we will be aiming to keep the game alive, at the very least, for the second leg in Dublin," he concluded. Steau appointed a new manager last June when Italian Cristiano Bergodi took over from caretaker coach Massimo Pedrazzini who had been in charge following the departure of Marius Lăcătuş. Bergodi has an impressive track record in Romanian football as he guided FC National Bucharest to the 2006 cup final. The following season he took CFR 1907 Cluj to a third-place finish in the league and then moved to Rapid Bucharest where he won the Romanian Super Cup, but was dismissed after failing to qualify for the UEFA Cup group stages. Steau currently play at the Stadionul Ghencea which was the first football-only stadium built in Communist Romania, with no track and field facilities. The original capacity was 30,000, but this was reduced to 28,139 and it is classified to host UEFA Champions League games as a third category arena.