While Danny Mandroiu's Shamrock Rovers exit was confirmed on the eve of their Champions League tie against Hibernians, the second half of last week's first leg showed a glimpse of the future.
With five minutes to go and the Hoops 3-0 up on their Maltese opponents, 17-year-old Justin Ferizaj was introduced for a cameo.
It was enough time for the Republic of Ireland youth international to signal his potential, days after he had made his SSE Airtricity League debut for the club as a late sub against St Patrick's Athletic.
Ferizaj is the subject of interest from clubs further afield with the young midfielder reportedly turning down Serie A side Sampdoria and is expected to sign a contract with Shamrock Rovers to continue his development at Tallaght Stadium.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast ahead of Tuesday night's second leg against Hibernians, ex-UCD, Shamrock Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Paul Corry was impressed with what he has seen of the player.
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"Justin is somebody I would have seen a lot of. I coached down at that age group with Belvedere and Justin was at Home Farm and then he moved onto St Kevin's - the same team as Kevin Zefi - and you could always see that he had the components in his game to go and progress and he has done so," he said.
"But the freedom he played with, particularly in that Champions League game, is something that has taken people aback.
"There's a fearlessness about him. There was one ball that he took on the half turn and it's just those little glimpses that you see and go wow, there's a real player in there and he's nutmegged the Hibernians player and he's then got the power to push through."
Corry believes the current underage pathways in this country has paved the way for the likes of Ferizaj and others to progress towards first-team involvement in a different way to previous times.
"We're starting to see some of the fruits of the national leagues"
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Shamrock Rovers & Ireland youth international Justin Ferizaj made an impression during last week's #UCL qualifier #RTESoccer
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"His performance was excellent but I think we're starting to see some of the fruits of the national leagues coming in and the fact that there's a system and a foundation there for younger players to actually work themselves through," he said.
"Justin's gone from the Under-15s to the U-17s, through to the U-19s and then training with the first team.
"That never existed before. Justin would have gone (to the UK) at 15 or 16 and you wouldn't have heard about him until he potentially came to a first team.
"Whereas now we're starting to become more familiar with these emerging talents that we have.
"And for Justin, if he can continue to progress, I'm sure (Shamrock Rovers) will put him on a professional contract with the view of then potentially selling on later down the line for a much higher fee than they would have got at 15 or 16."
Shelbourne manager Damien Duff has also showed a willingness to give opportunities to young players and another Ireland youth international, Jad Hakiki, stood out in their 3-1 win over Finn Harps last Friday - the third time the player who recently turned 18 has faced the Donegal side this season in his nine LOI appearances.
"Damien Duff has done well in blooding these youngsters in and drip-feeding them minutes over the period of the season and not just throwing them in the deep end early on," said Corry.
"Hakiki is one of them who has grown particularly over the last number of months. The more minutes he's had, the more you can see him coming to the fore.
"(He's) dangerous in the final third and certainly has elements of his game that you can see are going to lend itself well to the way that they're looking to set up and play."
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