Uefa Conference League: Larne v Shamrock Rovers, Windsor Park, Thursday, 5.45pm – Live on Premier Sports
For a change, Shamrock Rovers are the elder statesmen in Uefa Conference League action as Larne host the first ever European group game in Northern Ireland.
Many associated with the club, situated in the port town 24 miles north of Windsor Park, must be pinching themselves ahead of Rovers arrival.
Kenny Bruce, Larne’s owner since 2017, and YouTuber Nico Leonard, whose luxury watch company sponsors the shirt, do not fit in this category. The club’s financial backers facilitated the visit in recent days of former world boxing champion Carl Frampton and ex-Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra, to help motivate Tiernan Lynch’s squad.
“In life when you believe in something you can achieve anything,” Evra told the BBC on arrival in Co Antrim.
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The Belfast bantamweight offered similar advice.
“If you want to get the most out of your career, you need to live like a professional athlete all-year round,” Frampton told the Larne players. “I did that. I overachieved. I won world titles in two weight divisions. I don’t think I was meant to do that, and I genuinely don’t think people believed I would do it. But I believed in myself, and I lived the life.
“That’s the difference between the people who almost get there, and [those] sitting with their grandkids or children at 60 [who] think to themselves, ‘I wish I would have done a wee bit more’. There are so many people like that, and Northern Ireland is filled with them.”
With 1,600 Rovers fans travelling to the Belfast venue, the PSNI has formulated “an appropriate and proportionate policing operation ... to keep people safe”. Larne’s stadium Iver Park falls 5,000 short of the minimum Uefa capacity of 8,000.
The back-to-back NIFL Premiership champions’ first taste of the European group stages brings them into Stephen Bradley’s area of expertise. In 2022, the Shamrock Rovers manager accepted also-ran status against Djurgardens of Sweden, Belgian side Gent and Molde from Norway, to ensure Derry City did not pip them to a third successive league title.
Turns out Derry ran out of steam and Rovers finished with 13 points to spare, but Bradley’s squad was not equipped to be successful on two fronts. The return of Danny Mandroiu and 12 goals so far this season from Celtic loanee Johnny Kenny could see them reach the last 16 of this competition while also passing Derry and Shelbourne in the Premier Division home straight.
There is not a moment to spare. After Thursday’s game, Rovers must beat relegated Dundalk at Oriel Park on Sunday to bring the title race down to the last night on Friday week.
Larne are already struggling to cope with domestic and European commitments, lying eighth in the Premiership, 11 points adrift of Linfield, albeit with three games in hand.
They did make a giant leap by overcoming Ballkani of Kosovo on penalties, a club that beat them 7-1 on aggregate last year, and Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar, 4-3 over two ties.
That appears to be their limit. As Dylan Watts’s 92nd-minute equaliser secured a draw for Rovers at home to Apoelof Cyprus on October 3rd, Larne were torn apart away to Molde, losing 3-0.
On paper, this is comparable to Rovers’ 5-0 defeat to the Norwegians over two legs in 2022. In reality, the League of Ireland flag-bearers should bank the €400,000 win bonus here and move closer to the knockout stages.
Both sides may hold a McEneff brother, Aaron and Jordan, in reserve but Larne lack the quality of Rovers’ Irish internationals Jack Byrne and Graham Burke, although Neil Farrugia is suspended.
“I don’t think there’s a big difference but I think there’s a difference,” Lynch admitted when recently comparing the two leagues. “There’s probably more teams that are full-time and I definitely think still there’s a level of professionalism that we as a league and us as clubs could probably emulate and need to get a bit closer to, but I don’t think it’s a massive task.
“I think there’s lots we can learn from each other, and we should have a better working relationship. I think it’s hugely important that there is that collaboration and we get to test ourselves against them and vice versa.”
The Setanta Cup, featuring teams from Northern Ireland and the Republic, ran from 2005 to 2014 before it was cancelled, only briefly returning in 2019. This chance Uefa fixture could prove a timely reminder of its value or a fleeting moment in Irish football history.
Whatever the future holds, Rovers’ campaign rests upon beating Larne and the Welsh champions New Saints on November 7th to ensure that 2024 goes down as the greatest and most lucrative in the club’s 125-year history, mainly by keeping it going into 2025.
