St Patrick's Athletic manager Jon Daly admits there is a small step into the unknown when facing F91 Diddeleng in the Europa Conference League first round on Wednesday evening.
The Saints are in Luxembourg to face a side beaten by Bohemians two years ago, but have changed manager in the off-season and lost some players.
Daly is only in situ for a couple of months, but with the worldwide availability of LOI TV, games have been easily to access.
Diddeleng have yet to start their new season so just what to expect from Jamath Shoffner’s outfit something Daly is unsure of.
He said: "It's a tough one in the sense that there isn't a lot of footage since they've made changes. There is obviously plenty of footage (of St Pat’s) since I've taken over.
"We've done our best to get as much information as we can to the players for the squad they have. We looked at individual players. As I said we haven't seen a lot since the new manager has taken over and what his favoured system is
"It's his (Shoffner) first gig as manager as well so we can't exactly look back at his previous club on how he sets his team out. It is going to be very much going into the dark for the first part of the game.
"They have had good success in Europe over the years. It's something we can take lightly I don't think."
The Saints have had plenty of great nights in European football both at home and abroad, knocking out Mura last season and taking CSKA Sofia all the way including an away victory.
Group stage qualification is four rounds away – a near impossible feat – so Daly is keen to make their mark and then work hard to ensure they’re back in the position in 2024.
A large Saints support will be present in the 3,000 capacity Stade Jos Nosbaum in Dudelange.
"It's one of the highlights of the season. You work hard all season to try to qualify for Europe. We spoke about it last year.
"For the players that were here last season that didn't play a part in the year before, they've earned the right this year to be here.
"It's important we have a little run and go as far as we possibly can give the fans a couple of away days to enjoy and then focus on the other stuff when we get back to it and make sure this next year you're in and about it again."
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