Shamrock Rovers boss Collie O'Neill is relishing the opportunity to test his side against "the best of the best" when they square up to reigning champions Shelbourne in the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division on Saturday.
The Hoops are back in the division after a nine-year absence and have hit the ground running, picking up two wins from two so far.
They looked really impressive in the 6-0 destruction of Treaty United at Tallaght Stadium last Saturday evening, Jaime Thompson's hat-trick off the bench summing up the strength in depth O'Neill has at his disposal.
Rovers, who last competed in the league during the 2013/14 campaign, have caused quite a stir since re-establishing their women's team.
The Tallaght outfit swooped for some of the best players in the league over the course of the winter, with Amanda Budden, Abbie Larkin, Lia O'Leary and Jess Gargan among those who swapped Shels for Rovers.
The weekend's trip to Tolka Park will most certainly have a bit of needle - Larkin's departure left them particularly sore - but O'Neill is embracing it.
"We're looking forward to it because we want to challenge ourselves," he told RTÉ Sport.
"To challenge yourself you've got to play the best of the best and at this moment in time, Shels are the best of the best.
"If we want to get to where we want to go we've got to be competing in these games and seeing what we get out of them. We're just looking forward to the challenge."
Republic of Ireland international Larkin was withdrawn at half-time against Treaty due to a slight calf injury. She's expected to be okay to face her old side on Saturday but O'Neill has plenty of options regardless, not least academy graduate Thompson.
Her brilliant treble lit up Tallaght Stadium, with O'Neill adding: "Abbie had a slight calf injury. It was more of a precaution. There was no need to gamble on it.
"The good thing here, as you could see with Jaime coming off the bench, there's great competition for places. We're trying to keep as many of our players fit and available to keep that competition going.
"It was brilliant. That's what Jaime has in her locker. She's been outstanding, she's been unlucky not to start in some of the previous games but she is a good talent."
Assessing the overall performance, O'Neill admitted he expects even more from his talented charges.
"I thought we were a little bit nervous the first 15 minutes or so but once we settled into it you could see some of the passing patterns that we've been working on and the tempo coming up. So overall, I'm happy," he said.
"We're still probably only at about 60% of where we want to be. That's only a scratch of the surface of what we're hoping to achieve.
"In fairness with the chances we created it should have been 12, but there's finer bits of the performance that need to be worked on. We're trying to get them to play football in a way they've never done before and it's just taking a little time to try and adjust to it."
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