Kenny looking to attack

Derry City boss Stephen Kenny insists his emerging side will not sit back and defend when they travel to IFK Gothenburg for the first leg of their UEFA Cup qualifying clash.

Facing the two-time winners of the competition, the Candystripes are massive underdogs for their trip to Sweden despite IFK currently being on a mid-season break due to the World Cup.

Kenny is particularly wary of the likes of Andres Vasques, Stefan Selakovic and former Sheffield Wednesday and Everton man Niclas Alexandersson but believes his young side can only benefit from mixing it with the Swedes, currently fourth in their league.

IFK have only played one friendly since the start of the World Cup but Kenny is in no doubt about the scale of the task his side face.

“Gothenburg is a step up obviously,” Kenny said. “There are a lot of good sides in the Swedish league and they’re certainly up there.

“It’ll be a tough first leg but we’ve got to go and try to take the game to Gothenburg. The away goals are crucial and there’s not point in us sitting back.

“They’ll be highly-fancied to do well all right but it will be good experience for our players.

“If you look at our four midfield players, they’re all probably 21 and there’s no point in being fearful; they got to try to express themselves and try to do well.

“We’re emerging ourselves, we’re only going to get better and this is another step in our development and it’s a great for us.”

After a couple of wins on the bounce, Kenny will be without former Rochdale man Paddy McCourt and Eamon Doherty due to hamstring injuries, while Ciaran Martyn also misses the trip to Scandinavia with a shoulder injury.

But Kenny is determined to drum a positive frame of mind into his players and he added: “I’m sure they’ll be confident in playing us and they’ll take it to us but we won’t have an inferiority complex.

“We’ll do our best to try to keep the game alive for when they come to the Brandywell.”

Other matches in the first qualifying round see Glentoran host SK Brann, Drogheda travel to HJK Helsinki, while Portadown and Rhyl have home matches against Lithuanian opposition, FBK Kaunas and FK Suduva respectively.