Roy Chipolina has warned the Republic of Ireland that Gibraltar will set out to score against them as they head into Euro 2016 qualifier battle in Faro.
The Group D strugglers were trounced 7-0 in Dublin in October last year when the sides met for the first time, and although they have conceded a total of 34 goals and scored just one in their six competitive games to date, skipper Chipolina is confident progress has been made.
He said: "When we played Ireland, it was only our second match at this level. We had played a few friendlies before that, but nothing compared to the level of the teams we have been playing lately.
"Poland, Ireland, Germany - they don't get much stronger than that - and we have progressed in every game.
"We saw against Scotland, for example, we managed to get our first goal, but not only that, we actually managed to keep possession and at times scared Scotland.
"We did some of that against Germany as well, only 1-0 down at half-time, having a few shots, keeping possession and again giving them a few scares.
"I don't think they expected that from us, which is great. We are just looking to improve with every game and hopefully tomorrow, we will do the same against Ireland."
The Gibraltarians have understandably found their first qualifying campaign intensely difficult and manager Allen Bula, who led them into battle at the Aviva Stadium, has since been replaced by former Charlton goalkeeper Jeff Wood.
Wood, who was appointed in July, is confident his players are learning all the time and is not simply focussed on damage limitation.
He said: "We are all looking forward to it, to be fair. The boys have worked really hard, they are a good group of lads and we will just see if we can make some progress now.
"I think we showed in the last game against Germany with regards to possession and the goal attempts that we are moving forward and we are not looking maybe just to defend and try to keep the score down, we are trying to pose a threat to teams now.
"In modern day football, you need to cause teams problems, you need to try to pose problems for them. I think we do have some talented players and it will be interesting to see where we can actually take it."
Wood's lengthy career includes a spell as goalkeeping coach at Norwich, where he worked under Paul Lambert, who left him in little doubt as to the quality of the man in the opposite dug-out at the Estadio Algarve in Faro on Friday night.
He said with a smile: "Paul absolutely loves Martin O'Neill. He has been a big influence on his career. Martin is Martin. He is who he is, he's had a great career, managed some great clubs, always successful, so I think he's a great role model for Paul Lambert."
