BESIK-ENER!

Turkish giants put Saints to the sword

- BY PAUL O'HEHIR

YOU couldn't say Stephen Kenny saw it coming, but he certainly warned against it.

During his pre-match press conference the St Pat's boss left his players in no doubt what would happen if they weren't switched on last night.

“You can lose it in the first 10 mins if youre not psychologically tuned in’ he cautioned, and how right he was because his team only got going when it was far too late.

By that 10th minute, it was only 1-0 to Besiktas, who had opened their account two minutes earlier. But Ole Gunnar Sol-skjaer's men were merely warming up.

Besiktas looked capable of scoring with every attack and pretty much did, with former Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham running riot and racing to a halftime hat-trick.

In that time, the Turkish giants clobbered the Saints, who hadn't conceded a single goal in their last four European home games, stretching back to last season.

This time last summer, St Pat's held another Turkish side, Istanbul Basaksehir, to a scoreless draw in Tallaght and that was a yardstick for their ambition here.