Pat Fenlon wary as Shamrock Rovers miss key duo for Europa opener
The former Cardiff captain, who enjoyed runs to the Champions League and Uefa Cup semi-finals in his career with Leeds, strained a hamstring in Friday’s 2-1 win at Galway United.
While all of the squad, bar Sean O’Connor, who is in plaster after Achilles surgery, travelled on the team’s four-hour delayed charter yesterday afternoon (in a CityJet “Leinster Rugby” liveried replacement plane), manager Pat Fenlon must also select his starting XI without his captain Connor Kenna due to his niggling groin injury.
In addition, Fenlon’s preparations have been hampered by scant information on the side that finished fourth in the Luxembourg league last season.
Back in Europe for the first time since 1982, FC Progrès Niederkorn beat F91 Dudelange — who play UCD in the same competition on Thursday — 3-1 in a friendly at the weekend.
However, knowledge of it came too late for a Rovers staff member to get out and have a look.
“It is a little bit into the unknown,” said Fenlon. “It’s probably the hardest one we’ve had [to scout], but we’ll prepare the players as best we can. I’ve got some stuff from people in Scotland and we put together a DVD for the lads.”
Though Rovers go into the tie warm favourites, Fenlon, who managed Bohemians when they were surprisingly tanked 4-0 by Welsh club TNS five years ago, knows better than to take anything for granted.
“People may look at it and think ‘it’s Luxembourg, you’ve got a good chance’, but they’ll be okay,” said Fenlon. “They’ll be a decent standard, so we have to make sure we apply ourselves right.
“It’s obviously important we defend well. If we do that, we have players capable of scoring goals at the top end. That’s what we’ve got to try to do.”
Fenlon said that while Progrès are a physical team, they try to pass the ball.
“They have some good technical players, but I think, standard wise, they would be the same type of standard as our league.”
Uefa’s sizeable increase in prizemoney this year means clubs in the Europa League stand to earn an additional €210,000, on top of the €200,000 already netted for qualifying, for getting through to the second round.
Fenlon is all too conscious of the added pressure to ensure Rovers benefit from that type of windfall.
“The way things have gone in the league, the financial rewards for winning it are not as good as they used to be, so Europe’s become bigger,” said Fenlon.
“This year more so, with an extra €80,000 just for getting there. Getting through is then worth another couple of hundred grand to the club. So it’s massive from that point of view.
“It can be a big help to a League of Ireland club going through to another round. Players may not think of the financial end of it, but I do as a manager.
“I know there would be repercussion if we don’t [progress], as there would be a knock back somewhere else, and something else suffers.”
Hyland; Madden, Webster, Clancy, Byrne; Cregg, R. Brennan; Waters, Miele, McCabe; Drennan.
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