Drogheda prepared for anything thrown at them

Uefa Cup first qualifying round, second leg: Drogheda Utd (1) v Libertas (1)It's not so long since many League of Ireland managers routinely sought to mask their ignorance of prospective European opponents with bullish declarations that they preferred to concentrate on how their own team played rather than worry about anything the other lot might do

The flaw in the approach is obvious enough and was usually exposed when the Irish side fell behind to something like a headed goal set up by a left back who, to everybody's surprise, could launch a throw-in with pinpoint accuracy to the far side of the six-yard box. "We weren't expecting that," the rueful gaffer would say with a sigh afterwards.

Things have generally come a long way since then and Paul Doolin's emphasis on preparing his Drogheda United players well for their European excursions is one of the reasons the club fared reasonably well last season.

For all that, though, it does seem that if the league leaders can impose themselves on Libertas of San Marino at Dalymount Park this evening, there should be little the visitors can do to prevent themselves being dumped out at this first qualifying stage of the Uefa Cup.

The Sammarinese defended for almost the entire of the first leg and while they are not conceding defeat in advance of the game, the reply of their goalkeeper Michele Ceccoli when asked if he expected to be busy this evening, required no translation. His obvious bemusement that we felt the need to ask the question pretty much said it all.

United go into the game with the advantage of having scored an away goal, courtesy of Eamon Zayed, but the late equaliser they conceded after passing up a handful of chances to put the tie beyond doubt has given their opponents at least a glimmer of hope and, as Stuart Byrne confirmed the other day when he recalled Shelbourne's defeat by Hibernians of Malta a few seasons back, that's something that is really best avoided.

"It was unfortunate because while they defended well that was probably the only shot they had on target in the whole game," observes Doolin. "Now they could be out there saying that on the basis of that 'this lot aren't up to much, let's go and have a go at them,' but I think it's more likely they'll look to defend again and see whether they can grab something and I'd hope we'd be good enough to make sure that doesn't happen."

United are without Jason Gavin and Ollie Cahill while the visitors must cope without midfielder Davide Simoncini.

With Doolin's men having performed strongly in the league in recent weeks, he is expected to field much the same team that beat Waterford United 3-0 last week, several of whom will be well familiar with this evening's surroundings.

"It's a pitch I really like playing on," says Brian Shelley for whom Dalymount used to be home. "It's big and wide, obviously I played a lot of games there with Bohs, but I think as a team we tend to play well there."

Shelley has been one of United's consistently strong performers this season, with the Dubliner excelling on the right side of the back four either side of an enforced spell at centre half as the squad was hit by injuries.

"I've got a new lease of life now that I am back at right back," he says. "It's where I prefer to play - I'll play anywhere, but it is my favourite position."

A key part of his game is getting forward down the right flank and causing problems for the opposition. If he doesn't get to do a fair bit of that tonight then Pierre Angelo Menzaroli's side will have already have caused something of an upset, regardless of the actual result.

Dalymount Park, 7.45pm RTE Radio 1, MW/LW