St. Patrick's Athletic's European adventure is over for another year as they were shown the UEFA Europa Cup exit door by an impressive Steau Bucharest team.

Trailing 3-0 from the first leg, the Saints had a huge uphill battle to face going into battle at the RDS. Although they did not look capable of snatching the three goals they needed to bring the fixture into extra time, the Saints did take the lead early in the second half through Gareth O'Connor.

While a 1-0 win would not have been enough to see the Saints through, it would have still given the Inchicore club a famous win over one of the top names in European football.

However, two late goals, one from Nicolita and a second from Ochirosi ensured that it was the visitors who claimed the win on the night.

O'Connor struck shortly after the half-time break when he capitalised on great work down the right hand side by Declan O'Brien, who stole the ball off the full-back before crossing to O'Connor, who tapped into an empty net.

Alan Cawley almost made it 2-0 just moments later. The midfielder struck a free kick from 15 yards only to see his effort strike the very inside of the upright before rolling across the goal line. Had that goal gone in, the Saints would have needed only one more to bring the match into extra time.

However, with 25 minutes left on the clock, Ryan Guy's weak backpass was exploited by substitute Nicolita, who blasted into the top corner from the edge of the box.

And the visitors rubbed the salt in in the dying moments when Ochirosi gave Bucharest a second to deny the home side a famous win.