After a seven-year wait for a return to European football, Sligo Rovers saw their big night turned upside down in the space of seven second-half minutes.

With the tie scoreless and hosts FH Hafnarfjördur running out of ideas, Greg Bolger was shown a second yellow card in the 78th minute. It was the correct decision, the Sligo captain diving in the box attempting to win a penalty.

FH seized the initiative, and it was former Dundalk forward Steven Lennon who did the damage, glancing a delightful header beyond goalkeeper Luke McNicholas with five minutes left.

It was a cruel ending, especially for the 21-year-old between the posts who was making his first senior start in two years.

His appearance was a sign of Liam Buckley’s selection struggles as first choice Ed McGinty missed out with an ankle injury and experienced back-up Richard Brush also wasn’t fit.

Allied with centre back John Mahon being absent due to Covid-19 and promising striker Johnny Kenny not travelling to Iceland, this was always going to be a testing evening.

For the most part they passed with flying colours, and had Jordan Gibson done better with two chances in the box they might well have been much more comfortable before Bolger’s moment of stupidity.

Having already been shown a second-half yellow for a professional foul as FH broke forward, it was a needless dive as he burst into the box.

The Maltese official had the perfect view and Bolger had no arguments.

Lennon, the reigning player of the year in Iceland, had provided a warning from a similar position in the middle of the area between the six-yard area and penalty spot during the first half when another glancing header hit the outside of the post.

Gibson was the liveliest operator for the Bit O’Red but he will look back on two glaring misses with regret.

The first came a minute into first-half injury time when he latched on to Romeo Parkes’ deft dink over the top but miscued his shot and allowed the keeper to smoother.

The second was slightly comical. Substitute Walter Figueira pulled a cross back from the left which travelled all the way across to Gibson.

He struck a scruffy shot that was goal-bound but was deflected wide by Parkes trying to jump out of the way.

The costliest leap of the night was Bolger’s leap of shame in the box, however, a moment of madness that rules him out of the second leg and makes his team’s job all the more difficult.

FH Hafnarfjördur: Nielsen; Kristjansson, P Vidarsson, Thorisson, H Gunnarsson; Sverrisson, E Jonsson, J Jonsson (Gudlaugsson 93), Helgason (Dimitrijevic 82); Lennon (O Hreidrasson 93), Vilhjalmsson (c).

Sligo Rovers: McNicholas; Banks, Buckley, Blaney, Horgan; Parkes; Morahan, Bolger (c); Gibson, De Vries (Figueira 64), Byrne (Cawley 64).

Referee: I Barbara (Malta).