Skonto sail through

Barry Town AFC 0-1 FC Skonto (0-6 on aggregate)
Latvian champions FC Skonto eased their way into the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round with a comfortable 1-0 victory over the League of Wales title-holders, Barry Town AFC, at Jenner Park.

Powerful shot
The tie was effectively over already following Skonto's 5-0 win in the first leg, but the Latvians heaped further punishment on Barry, scoring the game's only goal early in the second half. A crisp break down the right saw Maris Verpakovskis outstrip Gary Lloyd and pull the ball back from the by-line to Vladimirs Kolesnicenko who sidefooted a powerful shot past Simon Rayner.

Moralee miss
Barry had the perfect opportunity to salvage some pride in front of a 1,507 crowd when they were awarded a penalty in the 56th minute after Viktors Morozs had clattered into the back of Jamie Moralee. Moralee himself stepped up to take the kick but his feeble shot floated over the bar, summing up the Dragons' performance over these two ties.

Latvians' reward
Overall it was an improved Barry side that contested the second leg but they never really troubled the Latvians who had too much skill in all areas. Throughout the game Barry managed just two shots on target with Nathan Cotterrall going close in the first half, curling a shot over from 20 metres. But Skonto stepped up a gear in the second half and they could have added further to their score. Their reward is a second qualifying round tie against Bulgaria's PFC Levski Sofia.

French lesson
"Twenty-odd minutes over there cost us dearly," said captain John French, referring to the four goals conceded in a 29-minute spell of the second half in last week's first leg in Riga.