Uefa Cup first round, first leg/Slavia Prague v Cork City: The Cork City players and their few supporters wandered almost unnoticed through the streets of Prague yesterday as the more numerous visitors from Amsterdam did their best to distract the locals. Emmet Malone reports from Prague.
In a handful of instances Ajax fans became involved in skirmishes with police ahead of their Champions League game at Sparta last night and the hosts were bracing themselves for more trouble.
For the Irish the only battles were of a very different sort. As City continued their preparations for this evening's game Slavia officials sought to hinder them with acts of pettiness ranging from a refusal to provide the customary videos of their team in action to sending them off to substandard training grounds and then, almost unheard of at this level, billing them for their use.
Through it all City's stand-in manager, Dave Hill, quietly got on with things. His players trained twice yesterday and between the sessions and his ongoing efforts to assess this evening's opponents, the Englishman has been in regular contact with Damien Richardson back in Cork. A call this afternoon should finalise the visiting side's starting line-up.
Slavia's main attacking threat comes from wide men like Karel Pitak - their top scorer this season with three goals - and Tomas Hrdlicka while their manager, Karel Jarolim, hopes his son, Lukas, will get forward from central midfield. The home team's most experienced striker, Stanislav Vlcek, misses tonight's game through suspension.
"In the circumstances it's a little hard to say what they'll be like," observed Hill yesterday, "but against Djugardens we realised early on how mobile their midfield was and adjusted things to take account of that after which we coped well. It might be a little like that again in this game, the first 15 or 20 minutes will tell us a lot."
For City, the only doubt remains Alan Bennett who continues to get through training without any apparent problems but who would represent quite a gamble for Hill and Richardson to start with as he hasn't played since pulling a hamstring in the second Djugardens game.
Bennett's pace and composure under pressure could prove invaluable this evening but a recurrence of the injury could prove hugely damaging, not just tonight but during the weeks ahead as Cork resume their pursuit of a league and cup double.
No decision on his participation will be made until today but if he is left out then Derek Coughlan looks to be the favourite to start there although the 28-year-old's lack of speed might well tempt Richardson into dropping Greg O'Halloran into the centre of the back four.
That, however, would have a knock-on effect in midfield with Joe Gamble then obliged to start alongside George O'Callaghan with Roy O'Donovan on the right.
The youngster has been something of a revelation for the southerners this season but he may have to settle for a place on the bench at the outset this evening.
"Whatever we do in the end, the general approach will be more or less the same," said Hill.
"If you try to change your game for one-off matches you can become undone. It's going to be a challenge, you only have to ask the lads who were here about the footballing lesson this lot gave Cork 11 years ago.
"They're a decent side but we hope to show them that the Eircom League, our players and Cork City have all come a long way since then."
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Coughlan, Murray, Murphy; Gamble, O'Callaghan, O'Halloran, Kearney; Fenn, O'Flynn.
SLAVIA PRAGUE: Kozacik; Svec, Latka, Holenak, Zboncak; Pitak, Suchy, Gedeon, Jarolim, Hrdlicka; Fort.
