Stephen Bradley is looking forward to going head-to-head, once again, with renowned Hungarian side Ferencvaros in tonight's Europa Conference League encounter in Budapest.
The two sides met in last year’s Europa League with Ferencvaros progressing thanks to a 4-1 aggregate victory, while Rovers ended up making it through to the group stages of the Conference League.
Ferencvaros proved too much for the Hoops in the home leg of that game 12 months ago, however, Bradley’s side took the game to them in the return leg at Tallaght Stadium, and while the could not overturn the 4-0 first leg result, they did manage to beat the Hungarian side in the second leg.
The Budapest outfit went on to record wins over Trabzonspor, Monaco and Red Star Belgrade in their group before being eliminated by Bayer Leverkusen.
The two teams are looking to bounce back from their recent Champions League exit, and while the League of Ireland champions were disappointed to lose home and away to Icelandic side, Breidablik, in that competition, the manager said that there is no sense of anti-climax following the relegation, of sorts, to the lower prestige tournament.
"No none at all," said Bradley, when asked if he felt any sense of anti-climax to playing in the Europa Conference League at this stage of the summer.
"I think being successful in Europe and progressing is difficult, and there is a reason why. Only two clubs have done it in the past, it’s difficult to do.
"I can’t remember an Irish team going really deep in the Champions League so I don’t think it’s any sort of anti-climax, if anything, we are looking forward to trying to beat, as we would feel, a top team."
And the manager said that the players bring a wealth of European experience into tonight’s encounter, which has made it very easy to prepare for the game and quickly put the disappointment of Champions League elimination behind them.
"We’re an experienced group now in terms of European football," said Bradley. "We know how it works, we play Friday or Sunday, whatever day, and the next day we are usually getting ready to travel and prepare for another game, and we are well used to that.
"Travel has been really good this year, straightforward, straight out of Dublin, there’s been no issues, so we’ve been good," added the manager, comparing it to the chaos of last summer when there were several logistical issues regarding the away games.
"Hotels and all that have been good, so it’s been straightforward and it’s all part of being at a successful club and a successful team, you play every few days and that’s exactly what you want."
Looking ahead to the game, Bradley admitted that his side would offer a strong element of caution for the first leg, with one eye on the second leg and remaining in the tie for the Tallaght return.
However, the manager feels that his side have a fighting chance in the tie and will be encouraged by the fact that Ferencvaros were also beaten, losing 3-1 on aggregate to Faroe Islands side KI Klaksvik.
"We’ve got to respect what we’re up against," said Bradley. "We’ve seen first hand how good they can be when they’re attacking.
"We’ve got our own threats as well. We’ve got to believe and trust ourselves. We always create chances in any game. I don’t see [tonight] being any different.
"It’s an extremely difficult game, we know that. But I think we saw last week that they are obviously beatable. We know we are against a top team, they were missing a few players last week and I’d imagine they'll come back in, which makes them stronger again.
"We faced them last year and seen first hand they are a good side. We know we’ll have to be at our very best to get something from the game.
"We’ll go with a gameplan to try and keep everything up in gear for bringing it back to Tallaght. We’ve seen what we can do in Tallaght on European nights."
And while Rovers results have been poor in recent weeks – the Hoops were also knocked out of the FAI Cup last weekend – the manager feels that the performances have not been rewarded.
"It’s fair to say in the first half in Tallaght [against Breidablik] we weren’t at our best. Second half we were very good," said Bradley, when asked about his side’s recent form.
"I think over in Iceland, we were the better team, made schoolboy errors in defence and got punished. Mistakes that we shouldn’t make.
"Against Dundalk [in the FAI Cup] I felt we were very good. I liked 90% of the performance. Sometimes you just don’t get what you deserve.
"When we get chances we need to be ruthless and we weren’t on Sunday, and we got punished. We know we need to go a bit if we want to get something from the game."
Bradley confirmed that Rory Gaffney would not be available for the first leg, while, Rovers have travelled without some key players including Jack Byrne, Trevor Clarke and Neil Farrugia.
"Rory will be out tomorrow. We’re hoping he’ll be OK for next Thursday. It was the right decision for him to come [off] because he has not done much damage which is good.
"The boys who have been injured, Trevor, Neil, Jack, Darragh Nugent, they are still out."
Bradley did confirm, however, that Roberto Lopes was in good spirits and absolutely fine to take part, following post match drama at Oriel Park when the Rovers defender was allegedly racially abused.
And the Hoops manager called the incident "disgusting", while also commending Dundalk’s swift response to the situation.
"I said after what happened to myself in Cork, I think these sort of incidents have no place in football or society as a whole," said Bradley. "I think it's disgusting.
"To be fair to Dundalk they have acted on it quickly and I think they have identified a person very quickly. But I don't understand why we feel that it's acceptable in any walk of life to speak to people like this. At times you feel like are we going backwards with certain parts of society?
"When the stuff happened myself, I had a letter from someone in England saying it happened 30 years ago to a manager in England. For me it's incredible things like that are still happening to this day.
"Pico would tell you himself, all players and management expect a certain level of abuse or banter, whatever you want to call it. But racial abuse and hatred has no place in any walk of life, never mind football. The guy who did it needs to be banned from every ground in the country for life. It's not acceptable.
"Pico’s fine. He was shook after the game, and the next day. Support from ourselves, Dundalk and the league as a whole, show people care and take these incidents seriously.
"It’s important that Pico, the ultimate professional, is backed and more importantly there is no place for that sort of behaviour.
"He’s in a good place now. One of his strengths is how he resets after games and incidents. That was a horrible incident."
