Fight for survival in Europe’s backyard

As work trips go, it was up there with the more memorable.

There are people out there who have spent years following Irish clubs around Europe and witnessed nothing more than a handful of victories on foreign soil — if any — so it counted as an enormous piece of luck to have this column’s maiden voyage stamped 11 years ago with a 2-0 win for Cork City against FK Ekranas in Lithuania.

A handful of snapshots stand out: Sitting in Damian Richardson’s hotel room with other journalists as the City manager expounded — at great length — about the task facing them the next day, the dead heat come kick-off, and the contrast between the old communist concrete buildings and the glitzy glass constructions that had sprung up beside them selling capitalism’s flashy new wares.