Shelbourne manager Joey O'Brien has called on his players to "go out with a bang" as their UEFA Conference League campaign comes to an end in Slovenia against NK Celje tonight.
Qualification to the knock-out stages is beyond the Tolka Park outfit having picked up just a single point in their five games to date, but O’Brien said that performing in European competition is all the motivation his players should need for the game.
"We’re going out to win, that’s the name of the game for us," he told RTÉ Sport’s Shane Dawson.
"Every time we go out and play a game it’s about winning, it’s why we do it.
"We don’t look at results last week or a couple of weeks ago, it’s about this one in front of us. Get a game plan and go out and try and attack the game."
"Winning away in Europe for Irish teams is very, very rare, so hopefully we can create that again tomorrow (Thursday) night," O’Brien added.
"They all know how lucky they are and how privileged they are representing this football club over here in Europe.
"So it’s a great opportunity to go out with a bang. After this they have a few weeks off, so I’m looking forward to it and after that we can relax and enjoy Christmas."
The match rounds off Shelbourne’s year, but with the League of Ireland season starting a week earlier in 2026, pre-season will quickly come back into view.
It was announced earlier this week that Shels will start their league season away to Waterford on 6 February, and O’Brien said that the club were working hard to strengthen for the next campaign.
"Obviously there’s stuff going on in the background, and that’s always constant; to keep on moving forward you have to bring in new faces to keep on pushing her on.
"Competition is the best coach – a motto we’ve had over the last few years. You need to keep adding to group by bringing in better and better players.
"I think we’ve done that on the journey over the last few years and that’s going to continue."
JJ Lunney is one of the players hoping to impress tonight in order to push himself further into next year's plans.
"I think every game is probably a bit of an audition," Lunney told RTÉ Sport.
"Every time you're in a starting team you want to keep your jersey as they say. And obviously there could be new people in that haven't really played as many minutes so obviously it's a chance for them to show what they can do.
"I think it's just about every player that's on the pitch as well as the subs that gives everything they can and gives a good account of themselves."
The manager and player are aligned. Lunney said despite qualification being beyond them, the goal is still to claim a win and credits O'Brien with the group's confidence.
"I think the manager has instilled a lot of confidence in us regardless of the results previously in the group.
"But we want to win the game and he tells us obviously not to go into any game thinking you're going to lose and if you're not there to win then you shouldn't be here... He has full belief, and so do we as players that we're going to win the game."
The midfielder said the 3-0 loss to palace and 2-0 loss to AZ Alkmaar were perfect prep and the plan against Celje is to hurt them in transition.
"I think we should take a lot of positives from the last two games. I think there's probably no better preparation than the opposition we've faced in them two games. So I think we're well prepared.
"We're comfortable sitting in our shape, but we know we can play and we've obviously looked at clips. They're very attacking so I think we can hurt them in transition when they turn over the ball. So we'll be really looking at that, but I think it's about confidence on the ball."
