Tickets remain on sale for Sunday eveningas match in tallaght Stadium. The match will be shown on LOITV.

WWe made history yet again on Thursday night, winning our play-off against Santa Clara 2-1 on aggregate and thus being the first LOI team to qualify for the Conference League phase without using the champion’s route. It’s an incredible achievement by everyone. 

“It is. The players deserve all the credit in the world. They’re the ones who’ve done it and had to perform in different ways in all the different games. It’s brilliant and they deserve massive credit for going through the process the tough way, without the champions route.”

While it was a very tense game, especially as the game entered the last ten minutes, we remained calm and disciplined to see the game out and over the line.

“We did. Again, I think you show your European experience and understanding for where the game is. I think we showed that throughout the night, but more so in the last few minutes when you know Santa Clara will just throw everything at it. They had three centre forwards on the pitch by the end of the game, so they were always going to get opportunities. But then Ed McGinty comes up with an incredible save, but I thought we managed the last ten minutes well and when we needed Ed, he was there.”

Speaking of Ed McGinty, he makes two crucial second half saves, but particularly the first you mentioned above, which are massive moments in preserving our one goal lead. 

“They were so important for us. How he saved both, I don’t know. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but Ed makes big saves, he’s a big personality and character and he’ll only get better.”

As always, like the fans, everyone enjoyed Thursday night but it’s back to the bread and butter of our quest to regain the league title. Does it get easier to move on from those European highs and refocus on the league now that our experience is so plentiful in that regard? 

“I think it’s important we do that. This group is now so experienced and understand that regardless of a result, you must enjoy it for that moment and night. Then it’s important that you move onto the next game and the group is really good at that. We’ll do that tomorrow because Drogheda are having a brilliant season and we need to make sure we’re at it.”

Drogheda have remained all season at the top end of the table and despite their heart-breaking removal from European football by UEFA, Kevin Doherty has really ensured his team have remained competitive and organised.

“Kevin has done a brilliant job. When the European stuff happened, that could’ve easily knocked and derailed their whole season, but it hasn’t. That’s all credit to Drogheda. All our games against them this season have been extremely tight. Tomorrow will be no different, we know we’ve got to be ready. Drogheda are doing really well, are very very good at what they do, and we need to be ready for that.”

Were there any injuries from the Santa Clara game? 

“No, just the usual few knocks, which you expect. Other than Connor Malley, who is making progress, everyone else is fine.”