Buckley bucks tradition

The club may still be haunted by its last trip to Poland, and Liam Buckley certainly hasn't forgotten his experience with St Patrick's Athletic when Moldova's Zimbru Chisinau beat the then Irish champions 10-0 on aggregate; but the Shamrock Rovers manager still insists he is approaching this evening's InterToto Cup first round tie with Odra Wodzislaw with a view to laying the basis for victory and a meeting with Czech opposition in the next round.

Buckley believes  the combination of the shift in the season here and the increasingly professional approach to the game can pay dividends against the Poles, although, he insists, the Zimbru experience has taught him not to make any rash predictions.

"I said to people immediately after the 5-0 home defeat that it would never happen me again," he recalls with a pained grin, "and the next thing I knew it was 10-0. But we're certainly hopeful that we can do enough in this game to bring them back to Dublin with the tie still there for the winning."

Buckley, who has been studying videos of the Poles from their domestic season, insists they are a decent side with a number of talented players.

"A couple of their lads made the Polish league's team of the year, and one of their strikers, Michael Chalbinski, has been widely linked with a big move to the Bundesliga. But all you can do is take the evidence you are presented with at face value, and on the strength of what I have seen in the videos I'd have to say that I feel we're in with a chance."

Odra finished fifth in the Polish league after a miserable run-in cost the club, which lay just four points off the top of the table with four games remaining, a crack at the title.

"I think it would be accepted that the standard in Poland would be higher," says Buckley, "so we'd be working on the basis that it's going to be a challenge.

"But there are certain things in their game, the fact that their full-backs look vulnerable to pace and we have that out wide, and perhaps a suspicion that they wouldn't be quite as physical as we can be here in Ireland, that would suggest to me that, if we do ourselves justice, we'll get something over there that gives us a good chance of winning when we get them back to Dublin."

Rovers have brought a squad of 20 to Poland for the game, with only Tony O'Dowd missing through injury. Trevor Molloy (ankle) is also a slight doubt, but Buckley has plenty of options up front with Tony Grant, Glen Fitzpatrick and Liam Kelly all fit.

Rovers' last trip to Poland was in 1994 when they were beaten 7-0 by Gornik Zabreze, and while reluctant to make predictions, Buckley maintains that things should go better this time round.

"You never know with these things, but I'm happy with the group of players and with the shape they're in. We know what's at stake (the winners play Slovan Liberec of the Czech Republic, with Spaniards awaiting the winners) and we certainly won't lose out for the lack of effort."