Sunday morning’s match in Dalymount will be streamed on LOITV, kick off at 11.30am

We can’t start anywhere else except with the draw to find out our Europa Conference League stage opponents! Chelsea, Rapid Vienna, Larne, Apoel Nicosia, TNS and Borac. To say it’s exciting for fans is an understatement, what’s your reaction to it?

“I think it’s a brilliant draw. It’s a mixture of everything, we have the glamour ties with Chelsea and Rapid, we also have games I feel will be winnable, so it will be really competitive and has given us a mixture of everything. So it’s really exciting times to have them in front of us.”

Without any disrespect to the other five teams, Chelsea away is an incredible prospect, for Rovers fans who will invade London as they did in 2011 against Tottenham, but also for players and staff to take on a Premier League colossus in Chelsea.

“In Chelsea, you’re playing one of the biggest clubs in the world. Without being disrespectful to anyone else, Chelsea are probably the biggest club in the competition. It’s great we have this game for the fans who deserve a game like that. We were gutted when we played AC Milan (in 2020) and we couldn’t have our fans there to witness it. I’m sure we’ll have huge support in London for the Chelsea game, I’m delighted for the fans more so than anyone else.”

Looking back briefly to the end of our Europa League run with the 2-0 defeat at home, what did you make of our second leg performance against PAOK?

“I thought for large parts it was good. I know we made alot of changes, but large parts were good. It was important to see Aaron McEneff, Jack Byrne, Richie Towell, Seán Kavanagh and Cory O’Sullivan, people who haven’t played much, it was really good to see them looking like they were getting back up to speed and fitness. That was really pleasing. We know PAOK are a quality outfit, but I thought for large parts of the game we were good.”

PAOK showed in Tallaght how strong a team they are physically but also they looked devastating in transition as you had warned when we drew them. These experiences should help the group as we look forward to the Conference games.

“We knew how strong PAOK were in transition, we saw that well before we played them. There are different ways you can play against that but we did try to find different ways through PAOK, especially the second leg, but this was also for what’s coming down the road in the Conference games. So it was more about trying those things last Thursday for what’s coming in Europe and seeing when it didn’t work and when it did. Learning from that for what’s ahead of us. I realise we were running the risk with how strong PAOK are in transition but it was great to face that level of opposition and learning from that going forward.”

As you said before the PAOK game, you’re comfortable playing Thursday/Sunday often as it means we’re doing well. We performed poorly when beaten 1-0 in the FAI Cup in Dalymount recently following our win against Vikingur, so there should be no need for motivation among the group in a big Dublin derby league game.

“As we all know, we didn’t perform at all in the FAI cup game after beating Vikingur, we let ourselves down. We know we can’t go in like that tomorrow, we need to make sure we show up ready to play, if we do that we’ll be ok. It can’t be a repeat of what happened a few weeks ago.”

The 11.30 kick off will be a throwback to all the group’s schoolboy football days. Is too much being made of the start time in how it might affect both teams’ performances?

“It is what it is. There’s no point in thinking about it. The decision is made and there was nothing we could do to affect it, so there was no point wasting our energy on it. It’s a case of adapting and being ready for it. What this group has learned in recent years in terms of both domestic and European football is adapting and being robust. So that’s what we’ll be looking to do, we won’t be feeling sorry for ourselves either way. It’s an early kick off so we’ll just get on with it and play the game.”

How did everyone emerge from the PAOK game and who remains on the injured list?

“Trevor Clarke is out but he’s not too far away. Aaron Greene and Darragh Nugent remain out. We need to check on Dan Cleary who picked up a knock against PAOK, but everyone else came out well after PAOK. Johnny Kenny trained on Wednesday and will be involved against Bohs.”