Pat Fenlon reflects on early Christmas present

It wasn’t quite an early Christmas present for Shamrock Rovers when they drew a team from Lapland on Monday in the Europa League First Qualifying Round.

The Hoops were drawn against Finnish side RoPS Rovaniemi, who play just 10km south of the Arctic Circle. They will prove more difficult opposition than Rovers faced at this stage in Europe last season.

The Hoops, who were seeded in the draw, will play the team who currently sit sixth in the 12 team Finnish Premier Division. RoPS qualified for Europe by finishing second in the league last season.

Both the Veikkausliga (Finland's top league) and the SSE Airtricity League are in season so there will be no advantage to Rovers in fitness terms as they go up against a team also playing a summer season.

“I’d imagine any Finnish team would be a decent opposition,” Shamrock Rovers boss Pat Fenlon told the club's website after Monday’s draw.

“I would not pay too much attention to their current league standing.”

“Their league would probably be on par with what the League of Ireland is like, their players, we would not know too much about.

“But, that’ll change throughout the next week. I’ll reach out to people within football that I know and we’ll learn a lot about the team and their players.”

Fenlon will no doubt be tapping into the Finnish connections that Rovers’ Head of Youth Development Shane Robinson will have. Robinson played for two seasons towards the end of his career in Finland, captaining FC Haka.

“Our players will learn a lot from them when they come to play us over here. It’s a two legged tie so it could work out for us,” said Fenlon about the arrangement of fixtures that sees the tie begin in Tallaght Stadium on Thursday 30 June.

The Hoops will then fly to Finland for the second leg, which will take place on Thursday 6 July.

The winner of the tie will take on the victor between Andoran side UE Santa Coloma and Croatian team Lokomotic Zagreb.

Last season Rovers made it through the first hurdle in European competition when they overcame FC Progress Niederkorn. Having drawn the first leg 0-0 in Luxembourg, they won the return leg in Tallaght 3-0.

In the second qualifying round, the Hoops came up against Scandinavian opposition, losing both home and away to Norwegian side Odds (4-1 on aggregate).

Odds went on to beat Swedish side Elfsborg 3-2 on aggregate in the following round before elimination to Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Europa League play-off round.

With many eyes focussed on Ireland’s matches at Euro 2016 in France, for Fenlon he is looking forward to taking his own team into European action.

“They are teams you don’t normally play, which can be good. We hope to get through a few rounds and enjoy it. We’re excited about it and happy to be involved in something different,” said Fenlon.

Before the Hoops begin their European adventure they take on Cork City in Tallaght Stadium this coming Friday night with an 8pm kick off.