Shakhytor ease past Glenavon

There was to be no fairytale comeback for Glenavon as they bowed out of the Europa League with a 3-0 defeat against Shakhytor Soligorsk in Belarus on Thursday night.
A tired Glenavon at the final whistle.A tired Glenavon at the final whistle.
A tired Glenavon at the final whistle.

Trailing 2-1 from the first leg it was crucial the Lurgan Blues struck first, but just like the first game Shakhytor dashed those plans by taking the lead which put them in a commanding 3-1 lead overall.

Credit to Glenavon they did not give up or let the heads drop and reached the break still only 1-0 down on the night.

Shakhtyor took a firm grip of the tie as they forged ahead on eight minutes. The goal had a bit of good fortune about it. Kris Lindsay, starting ahead of David Elebert, conceded the free kick after a foul Komarovski and Yurevich was rewarded for going for goal as his shot clipped off the wall and past Jonathan Tuffey.

That goal came on eight minutes and up to that point Glenavon would have been happy with their start. The home side created several more chances but failed to hit the target unil Starhorodskiy and Komarovski called Tuffey into action.

The second half saw Glenavon again having to defend deep but they did try to break on the counter but nothing would fall theri way when they got into the box.

Nikolai Yanush scored on 66 minutes to make it 2-0 and a third arrived on 86 minutes from Dmitri Komarovski.

Overall Glenavon will have no complaints, but hopefully they can take some positives out of the two legs as they were up against full time players and yet did not let themselves down.

Glenavon:Tuffey, Kelly, Lindsay, Marshall, Dillon, Singleton, Kilmartin, Hall, Martyn, Bradley, Braniff.

Subs:Neill, Patton, Sykes, Fabio, Caldwell, Hamilton, Elebert