Tiernan Lynch may be a newcomer to the League of Ireland but the Derry City manager is already well acquainted with the prowess of its leading lights.
Last October, the Belfast native welcomed Shamrock Rovers to Windsor Park where his Larne side had decamped for a UEFA Conference League clash.
Ultimately it proved to be a chastening experience for Lynch's team as the Hoops thrashed them 4-1 in convincing fashion.
But in some ways, the quality displayed by a top-end SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division club was not a huge surprise to Lynch, as he told RTÉ Sport, with Derry City's season-opener away against reigning champions Shelbourne looming on Friday.
"Obviously we've been following the league for a number of years and watching some of the great teams that the League of Ireland have put on offer," said the 48-year-old, who will be assisted by his elder brother Seamus, just as he was at Larne during his successful tenure.
"We're under no illusions how difficult this is going to be. We're under no illusions the challenge that lies ahead. But it's a challenge we're going to enjoy and we're going to embrace."
Appointed in November after the parting of ways with predecessor Ruaidhrí Higgins, Lynch arrives at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium with trophy-winning pedigree.
Over a seven-and-a-half year tenure at Larne, he took what was an unfancied side from the depths of the Northern Irish second tier to promotion and then back-to-back league NIFL Premiership crowns in 2023 and 2024.
Then last summer, he made history by guiding Larne into the 'League Phase' of the Conference League, becoming the first Northern Irish side to achieve the feat of qualifying for a European competition proper.
A significant aspect behind Larne's success was the input of owner and primary backer Kenny Bruce and the symbiotic relationship Lynch had with him in building an all-conquering squad domestically.
Similarly, Derry City's owner, billionaire businessman Philip O'Doherty, backed Higgins in his time which yielded a first FAI Cup triumph in a decade in 2022 and regular residencies in the European places.
"Probably the same thing as working with Kenny, Philip's hugely ambitious. He wants to see Derry City succeed, he wants to see the club grow," said Lynch.
"A strong football club makes the city all the better of a place and that's our intentions. We want to get the fans behind us and we want to try and make the city proud."
Derry City are going into this campaign at something of a low ebb. For a large part of last season, they seemed to be locked into a two-horse title race but wound up finishing fourth and missed out on Europe entirely for the first time in five years, compounded by losing the FAI Cup final to Drogheda United.
Since then, the likes of Will Patching, Patrick McEleney and Ciaran Coll are among those to have left the building.
But there has been scrutiny on the incomings, specifically about some of their age profiles. The arrivals of former Hearts striker Liam Boyce (33), ex-Dundalk and St Patrick's Athletic midfielder Robbie Benson (32), former Newcastle and Millwall left-back Shane Ferguson (33) and ex-Sunderland and Shrewsbury midfielder Carl Winchester (32) have pushed the average age of the squad up to a league high 27-plus.
"There was lots of experience moved on and it was important that we tried to bring in a lot of experience in and around it," Lynch said, who gave short shrift to the significance of their birth dates, adding that signing Boyce as well as the likes of Dom Thomas and Gavin Whyte will bring a degree of freshness given they are new to the league.
Apart from new faces, the results of the recent facelift at the Brandywell is due to be unveiled in the very near future in the shape of the new stand.
But the fact that the Candystripes will have the use of Derry GAA's centre of excellence at Owenbeg could also be a boon. Certainly, Lynch believes so.
"It's massive," he said.
"One of the things we wanted coming in was to make sure we had a base to work from on a daily basis, somewhere where we could make players accountable to the levels of professionalism that we wanted to introduce but it's also about wanting to keep them together on a daily basis and I think we've achieved that at Owenbeg."
But for Lynch, the main task is finding those marginal gains that could help Derry bridge the gap towards the rarified air at the top end of the league.
"I've stated very clearly, once you get into the job and you realise the size of the football club and the job that Ruaidhri achieved, I think great credit to Ruaidhri and his team," he said.
"Our job is to put our slant on it now and bring - I'm not going to say a different brand of football but our brand of football and hopefully that works for us."
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