After a score draw in Iceland came a win in Luxembourg as Bohemians once again showed they enjoy the European stage.

And Bohs boss Keith Long heaped praise on midfielder Ross Tierney as his first-half goal earned the Gypsies a 1-0 win away to Dudelange and a realistic chance of progress to the third round of the Europa Conference League and a meeting with Greek side PAOK.

“For his age, his tender years, he’s played a lot of games for the club over the three years. He has been around the first team for a number of years but he’s really stepped up this year and taken his game to another level,” Long said of the 20-year-old.

Before this summer Bohs hadn’t won through a round in Europe, or won away from home, since 2008 but they have the potential to make their stay in the inaugural Conference League a reasonably lengthy one.

Tierney scored on his Ireland U-21 debut in Spain last month, then marked his first European appearance for Bohs with a goal in Iceland in the first round, and he netted again on foreign soil, in Luxembourg, to secure the win.

Dawson Devoy created the move on 11 minutes, his pass played in Ali Coote – and Tierney was on hand to finish after Dudelange’s 41-year-old goalkeeper Jonathan Foubert failed to gather the ball.

“It was a good win, a hard-fought win,” Long said after the game. “We started very lively, got the goal and I was pleased with how we played in the first half.

“In the second half it was tough, but we coped quite well with Dudelange coming stronger in the game as you’d expect, but we defended really well in the second half and saw out the win,

“They threw bodies forward and tested our organisation.

“We had to bring some bodies on and in the conditions, it was very hot over there, the boys dug out a good result.

“It was a great ball by Dawson and Ali made a great run, he caused confusion in their back line and Ross was on hand, the ’keeper comes together with Ali and the ball spills free for Rossi to slot home, so it was another important goal by Rossi for the club.”

Despite showing signs of frustration late on, with repeated penalty appeals, Dudelange fell to defeat and they now need to conjure up something in Dublin next week.

DUDELANGE – Joubert, Van der Kerkhof, Delgado, Cools, Diouf, Dos Santos, Morren, Kirch, Hadji (Nader 66), Sinani, Bettaieb (Muratovic 66).
BOHS – Talbot, Lyons, C Kelly (Feely 79), Cornwall, Breslin, Buckley, Devoy; Coote, Tierney (Levingston 68), Burt (Finnerty 80); G Kelly.
REF – Nejc Kajtazovic (Slovenia).