Rory Gaffney believes learning the lessons from the pain of past European shortfalls was crucial in Shamrock Rovers ending an 11-year wait for a return to group stage football.
The striker was instrumental in the North Macedonian capital Skopje on Tuesday night, scoring the opening goal of the Europa League third qualifying round second leg for the Hoops as they won 2-1 to seal a 5-2 aggregate win over KF Shkupi.
The result guarantees group stage European football for just the fourth time ever for a League of Ireland club with a spot secured in the Europa Conference League at a minimum.
And Stephen Bradley's SSE Airtricity League leaders can even still reach the Europa League group stages if they can win their play-off tie against Hungarian record champions Ferencvaros.
Last season, Shamrock Rovers missed out on the Conference League group stages after losing the play-off round to Estonian side Flora Tallinn and Gaffney said manager Bradley had used that disappointment as a warning for his squad this season.
"When he has gone through video clips, he has spoken about how teams in Europe have punished them at times and he's always looking at the bigger picture," he said.
"He obviously has been thinking about this and they've been building this over the last number of years and thankfully it's come off this year."
Gaffney acknowledged that Shkupi gave them a tough challenge to overcome despite the three-goal swing in Rovers' favour.
"It's a great achievement. It was a nervy night and thank God we were so good in the first half last week that we got the two goals because definitely over both games, 5-2 flatters us a bit," he said.
"I don't think they were as bad as the scoreline suggests and were very dangerous going forward and it did look ropey at the back.
"But we probably found it hard to create anything clear cut. We could have been a goal or two up at half-time but they were dangerous and good on the ball so very happy (to get through) to be honest."
The Galway native added that the strength of the Rovers squad paid dividends with progression ensured despite the absences through injury of Jack Byrne, Graham Burke, Roberto 'Pico' Lopes and Chris McCann for parts of the European run.
"There was Danny Mandroiu leaving as well and obviously Pico has been brilliant for the club for the last few years," he said.
"But if you were to say at the start of the season that we'd qualify for the group stages where Pico is injured, Chris McCann's injured, Danny Mandroiu's left, Jack Byrne's coming back from injury, Graham Burke has been injured as well up until recently, it probably just shows you the quality that's in the squad.
"Dylan Watts has been brilliant recently, (Aaron) Greene has come in and been good and obviously Andy Lyons has been a new signing and we brought on Sean Gannon tonight and you can see the experience and quality that he has. Likewise with Sean Kavanagh, so there is a really good squad there."
With Derry City to come in the SSE Airtricity League on Friday at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, Gaffney said it was crucial to refocus quickly for that game in their longer-term bid to win a third league title in a row which in turn would help with their fortunes in Europe again next season.
"We will want to have a go at the group stages but I think it will be wasted if we don't win the league," he said.
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
