Shelbourne manager Joey O'Brien was keen to keep the focus on his players and next week's trip to Windsor Park after enjoying a 1-0 win at home over Linfield in the first leg of their Champions League first qualifying round tie.
The spotlight was never far from the dugout during Damien Duff's Tolka tenure, but that may not be the case in Shels' evolution under O'Brien.
However, the 39-year-old deserves plenty of plaudits for his half-time intervention as the League of Ireland champions downed the Irish Premiership kingpins.
Mipo Odubeko's 58th-minute goal decided the game, with his assist coming from Sean Boyd, who was part of a bold triple substitution just two minutes earlier.
"He was a handful when he came on," O'Brien enthused as he spoke to RTÉ Sport after the final whistle.
"He did brilliant. First half, I thought it was a really good performance, we attacked the game really well and created loads of chances.
"But as I said to the boys before the game, European football, I always say is four halves of football and sometimes you don't get what you deserve.
"That was it, it was just about resetting and attacking the second half. I thought we had chances in the second half and it was great to get the winner."
For the second leg, O'Brien indicated that his side wouldn't sit back and defend their lead, and that attack would prove the best form of defence, adding: "We'll be going up there to attack the game, get on the front foot, and dominate and look to win the tie.
"As I said, the game is still in the balance and there's everything to play for, so I can't wait for next week."
'The game is well alive' - Shelbourne boss Joey O'Brien's focus has already turned to the second leg against Linfield #rtesport #UCL #LOI pic.twitter.com/J3GNV1MXaZ
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 9, 2025
For those outside the club, it does seem that the transition to life under O'Brien from his high-profile predecessor has been relatively seamless.
Strip away the white noise surrounding Shels in recent weeks and months, and many of the fundamentals remain the same.
"Loads has changed, but not a lot has changed," O'Brien said. "You're still getting up every morning, you're still going to work, you're still on the training pitch.
"Obviously, we were really well coached, well drilled before the manager left, but it's just to continue on from that and there's a few tweaks here and there.
"The one thing that will never change is the intensity of training. Training has been great and I think once your training is really intense and really competitive, that comes out on match night.
"It's been great, but it wasn't about me, it was about the lads. I'm just delighted they put in a good performance and got the win tonight."
The match represented a first competitive game of the season for Linfield and that was evident throughout the encounter.
O'Brien's counterpart David Healy may not have got the result he desired on his trip to the South, but he sounded relatively chipper in his post-match interview and is eyeing major improvement from his charges over the coming week.
"I'm pleased with the effort we put into it," he said. "We knew coming into it that in terms of match sharpness and match readiness that we were going to be slightly behind, which we were.
"But I can't fault the effort of the players, we dug in.
"I think the goal was maybe deflected, from where I was. It was a poor goal.
"Obviously any goal is decisive in a game of this magnitude tonight.
"The goal was disappointing, but we did so many good things defensively.
"If there's any little frustration it's that we had one or two little moments that we didn't quite capitalise on with a finish or a better pass, but we'll be better next week with the ball."
