Sligo Rovers manager John Russell hopes his young players shine on the European stage at Fir Park and cause an upset against Motherwell.
The likes of striker Aiden Keena and goalkeeper Ed McGinty pose a real threat to Motherwell's hopes of progress and Russell feels his players have the drive to make their mark in the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.
Former Hearts and Falkirk striker Keena has scored 11 goals in the SSE Airtricity League and once in Europe since signing for the Bit o' Red in January while McGinty looks set to join Oxford in the coming days.
On the impact 23-year-old Keena has made, Russell said: "He's a real attacking threat, he can score goals, he can create chances, and he's a real team player.
"He is hungry and, for me going forward as a manager, I am looking to recruit young, hungry players who want to go to the next level.
"Our league is very much a platform for young players. You can see a lot of Scottish clubs have come and taken the best players from our league.
"I am very aware of young Ross Tierney, who you guys have here now at Motherwell, and I played with Jake Carroll when he was breaking through at St Pat's back in 2012.
"We have a young, hungry team and we are hoping the players go out and show their ability on Thursday night.
"All our players think it's a shop window, they will see this as a huge opportunity. The benefit of playing in Ireland is you get to play in European competitions.
"That's the target for Sligo Rovers and all the clubs in Ireland, you are trying to get into that top three and one or two clubs have broken into the group stages.
"We are no different at Sligo, we want to build the club, we want to build a young team who come away to these ties and take on the opposition and hopefully cause an upset."
McGinty grew up in Motherwell and Sligo hope the 22-year-old can make a homecoming appearance in the first leg, but there remained some doubt over whether that would happen.
"There has been a lot of interest," Russell said. "Ed is a top player, he has come through our academy into the first team and we are delighted with the progress he has made, but we are also aware there is huge interest in him.
"We will have to wait and see how that plays out for him over the next day or two.
"Football is a fast-paced industry, I could come out of here and you wouldn't know what could happen.
"We will wait and see but our focus for all the players is to do our last bits of preparation and hopefully play well on Thursday night."
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