Baraclough banking on past European experience

Sligo Rovers manager Ian Baraclough hopes that his side’s past European experience will help see them through the 2nd Qualifying Round.

Baraclough, making his debut in the competition, met the press on Tuesday afternoon ahead of his UEFA Champions League tie with Molde.

“I can’t speak for what has happened in the past. I was here last year in the Europa League and I felt that over the two legs we did enough to go and win the game but didn’t for one reason or another and maybe that was down to a bit of naivety on our part. I think with the amount of times we have played in Europe recently experience now has to show through and hopefully we have enough in our locker to venture in to further rounds.”

Baraclough has done his homework on the Norwegian champions and is expecting to see a physical and technically gifted side playing against his team tomorrow evening.

“They will be athletic and technically very good. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has got a team full of players who know how to pass a ball about, they have forward players who are quick and incisive and technically gifted. We will have to concentrate fully with a team like this, they aren’t the kind of team we would face week in, week out in the League of Ireland.

Assistant Manager Gary Stevens has previous experience in European competition, winning the UEFA Cup as a player with Tottenham Hotspurs in 1984 and Ian believes having someone with that kind of experience in that camp will be of great benefit to his players.

“That was part of the reason why I brought him in, he brings that kind of experience. Not only does he work day in, day out with all the players, he is someone they can relate to and gets along with everybody while getting his point across.

“He is relishing testing himself against managers from other countries with different philosophies. We are always learning, and having someone here who as a player has won things at the highest level is the sort of thing we can feed off.”

Throughout the season The Bit O’Red have been hampered by injuries to various key players and tomorrow will be no different when they may have to plan without Raffaele Cretaro, Danny North, Aaron Greene and Danny Ventre. It is frustrating for the manager, but he believes there is enough quality in the players available to get a positive result.

“It’s frustrating when you don’t have your choice of everybody. We have lost key players at different times and I think that has had an impact on how we have done this season, for a game like this I would like all the players who have been injured to be in the reckoning, but we have to work with what we have got available and I think we have enough within the group to overcome Molde.”

Baraclough and his side have made it no secret that they have ambitious European dreams this season and they want to push the barrier and make a serious challenge for a place in the Champions League group stages. While many will rule out the possibly of it happening, Ian believes it will never be achieved by an Irish side if such a mentality continues.

“It’s not impossible. Nothing is impossible. You break that word down, impossible. Break it up in to I’m possible, anything is possible if you believe it and build towards it. If it doesn’t happen this year, it might happen next year or following year, but the club grows, you start to get more experience and eventually someone will do it if they have the belief and the backing of everybody in the country.

“If we all start thinking it can’t be done, it won’t be done.”