Hoops real keen to make a point
But Hoops boss Michael O’Neill urged caution ahead of a match which is expected to draw a crowd of around 7,500 to Tallaght Stadium, 500 of whom will be travelling fans.
“They don’t have the glamour of Spurs or the financial clout of Kazan, but they are unbeaten in the group so I wouldn’t say they are the weaker of the three teams or anything like that,” said O’Neill of PAOK.
“Yes, they’re an older team and maybe some of their players are just the other side of the peak of their careers but that also means that they’re experienced.
“I think it will be an extremely difficult match, no less so than the game against Rubin Kazan.”
That 0-3 reverse was, O’Neill admitted, the low point of Rovers’ extraordinary European odyssey this season and the lesson he has learned from it is about how harshly individual errors can be punished at this level.
That and the need for the home side to keep things as tight as possible for as long as possible tonight.
“Staying in the game is paramount. Of course, that’s not to say we wouldn’t like to get an early goal ourselves but if the game is still nil-nil after 70 minutes I’d have no issues with that because we’ve already shown that we can score late on in games.”
Although O’ Neill said Rovers don’t want to emerge from six games in the group without a single point, he added that should that scenario come to pass it won’t be “a disaster” given they are in a group containing at least two sides – Spurs and Kazan – whose ambition would have been to be playing in the Champions League.
“As far as I’m concerned the pressure is off us,” he said.
“We’ve retained the league title, which was the main objective, we’re the Setanta Cup holders and we’ve reached the group stages of the Europa League.
“[Chairman] Jonathan [Roche] has plenty of money in the bank too! If we get zero points or ten points, I’ll still have a happy Christmas.”
If Rovers can get points on the board tonight there’ll be even more money in the kitty, with the UEFA prize fund guaranteeing €70,000 for a draw and €140,000 for a win. All the more reason then for the Hoops faithful to hope that Karl Sheppard can repeat his goal-scoring exploits from Greece.
When manager O’Neill said that, despite this game coming after all the domestic issues have been settled, the Rovers players are still “itching” for this contest, he’s probably understating the situation in the case of Sheppard who literally broke his own door down to get to training on time this week after locking himself in his house.
And in a timely boost for the player ahead of tonight’s game, he was yesterday named the Airtricity/Soccer Writers of Ireland Player of the Month.
“I had a good month because the team was playing well and wrapped the league up,” he said, “so I’m delighted to get this award.”
In team news, striker Gary Twigg was due to be assessed following training yesterday while, for PAOK, manager Laszlo Boloni is short four of his usual starters.
However, having seen his side fail to win in four league games, the manager seemed mainly concerned last night with fending off criticism from the travelling Greek media, dismissing one question as “hypothetical” and suggesting that, while his critics might not like to hear it, the favourites in Group A would have be Spurs and Kazan, even though his side currently lie in second place, one point ahead of the Russians.
But Boloni did at least concede his side are favourites tonight as Rovers, at home, might be more “offensive and aggressive”.
Graciously, Boloni extended his congratulations to the Hoops on retaining their Airtricity Premier Division title but that looks like being the end of the good vibes from PAOK who will be under considerable pressure tonight to take the three points.
“We respect this team and it will be a difficult match,” said Boloni, “but we will do everything we can to be happy after the game.”
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