Athlone Town interim manager John Sullivan admitted that the club had one eye on their league challenge when they took on Glasgow City in Wednesday night's Women's Europa Cup second leg.
Trailing 3-0 from the opening game in Scotland, Sullivan made a host of changes, rewarding his "young guns" with a chance to gain valuable European experience at Athlone Town Stadium.
The result emphasised the difference between the two sides as Glasgow doubled their advantage to take a 6-0 overall win, while Athlone's attention turns to the weekend and their SSE Airtricity League clash with DLR Waves.
Athlone are currently top of the table, a point clear of their only realistic challengers, Shelbourne, and have a game in hand with just five remaining. They will be back on the European stage next season should they manage to hold on and win the title.
"We had some young guns in tonight," said Sullivan, speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game. "Hazel Donegan, Izzy Ryan... They deserve the right to play, they've trained really well, their behaviours are amazing around the club.
"We reward that, while we're also very conscious of overloading the other girls who have played four games in ten days.
"The girls have played Saturday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday, game on Saturday again. As we said to the girls, if you want to get to this level next year, you've got to go now and get your bread and butter with the league games coming up.
"This is the end of the season where every player wants to be at and this is where you put the hard yards in in the pre-season. They're doing the right things off the pitch and on the training ground. We've just got to, as staff, be mindful of the load, make sure we're getting enough rest and recovery, get recharged so we can go again."
There is a vacancy in the managerial role at the club since the departure of Colin Fortune, and O'Sullivan is not ruling himself out of contention.
"Who wouldn't [want the job]? It is a great role, it's a great club," said O'Sullivan. "I'm very grateful for Ian Ryan, who was working with the men's team, had encouraged me to go ahead with it, so I'm very grateful for Ian.
"We haven't talked about next year. Between now and the end of the season, so that's how we're focusing on it."
Ireland international Emily Whelan (above) was part of the winning Glasgow side and was delighted to start, and score the opening goal, having got just five minutes off the bench in the first leg.
"I've been working hard trying to prove myself in training and in games," she said. "It was really nice to be on the pitch starting, with my family and friends here.
"I just remember seeing Natalia [Wrobel] putting the ball in the box and before I knew it, my head was on it. Back to my striker days, I was just trying to get the ball in the net."
Whelan won the most recent of her nine Ireland caps in 2021 and hopes to add to that tally.
"I'm always just going to work as hard as I can for the club, and if I get onto the national setup, that's an extra bonus."
