Rogers in European wonderland

Shelbourne defender Dave Rogers admits he is still pinching himself to make sure this season’s European adventure has not been just a dream.

The 29-year-old has been a journeyman at various small-time clubs from Carlisle to Ayr United before he moved to the Dublin side last year thinking he would be simply winding his career down.

But the big Scouser was instrumental in Shels’ remarkable Champions League campaign this season, helping the Irish side beat KR Reykjavik and Hajduk Split, where he scored a storming goal in their 2-0 win at Tolka Park.

The Dubliners eventually lost out to Deportivo La Coruna and now take on French side Lille in the first leg of their UEFA Cup first-round tie at Lansdowne Road – and Rogers is savouring every moment of it.

He said: “I thought I would go through my career and not get to play against the best players and the best teams. I thought that had all passed me by.

“If you had said I would be playing in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup 18 months ago I would have laughed.

“But people are taking notice now and it gives me great pride to have played a part in the feel-good factor in Dublin at the moment.

“When I scored the goal against Hajduk it was unbelievable, there were people crying.

“Even now when I’m walking down the street people stop me and talk about it and one even said that if he never sees another Shelbourne game again at least he’ll have that memory.

“And when we played against Deportivo at a packed Lansdowne Road, I was on the park thinking: ‘This is what it’s all about’.

“I‘m confident we can turn in a similar performance in the UEFA Cup against Lille.”

Lille’s talented Slovenian midfielder Milenko Acimovic, who scored a hat-trick in his country’s recent 3-0 World Cup win against Moldova, admitted the Irish side are something of an unknown quantity.

He said: “I don’t know anything about them apart from they play good football.

“I know they drew 0-0 against Deportivo at home and so they will make it very hard for us.

“But Lille is also a small team and it’s good for us that we came through the Intertoto Cup and now we’ve got a big chance in the UEFA Cup.

“We will be trying to get a result that will help take us into the next round and it will be very good for our supporters if we can achieve that.”

Shels manager Pat Fenlon, however, watched Lille play against Nice at the weekend and he insisted the French side are not just a one-man team.

He said: “It’s not just Acimovic we have to watch, they have a few decent players.

“Their back four in particular is very strong and they have good height throughout the team which we will have to watch out for, but I think there are a few areas we can exploit.”