Shamrock Rovers were struggling for identity when they last faced Djurgardens and keeping the score respectable was the priority.
Such was the way back in 2002 when the Hoops - managed then by Liam Buckley - were a broken club on the ropes with no money, no ground and no training pitch to call their own.
They were asked to leave public parks where they had hoped to train, and a laundrette once refused to give back jerseys because the bill hadn’t been paid.
The Hoops even had to play a ‘home’ game against Cork City in Cork because of their well-documented stadium woes during those homeless years.
Stephen McGuinness, who scored Rovers only goal against Djurgardens in their 5-1 aggregate UEFA Cup defeat, remembers those struggles only too well.
But this week, as PFA Ireland boss, he had a window into how the modern day Hoops set the standard and understands why victory in tomorrow's opening group game wouldn’t be a shock.
McGuinness said: “Our club visit this week was Rovers and we met the players at an unbelievable Roadstone facility with astroturf pitches, grass, indoor astro, gym - all Rovers'.
“When I played against Djurgardens, we had no training ground, no home ground, we were all part-time with no full-time players and we were expected to compete.
“Djurgardens back then were probably where Rovers are now. That’s the one regret of players that I played with, that we didn't have that opportunity for a proper full-time set up.
“Now, teams like Rovers are very competitive in Europe. Dundalk have really good facilities and Bohs’ set-up at DCU is brilliant. I'm really noticing how professional the set-ups are.”
It’s night and day from when Rovers played tomorrow’s Swedish rivals at Tolka Park in 2002, with McGuinness scoring in the 3-1 defeat. The Hoops lost the away leg 2-0.
“By hoping to be competitive it meant trying to keep the score down,” said McGuinness, the former centre-back.
“Liam Buckley did his best for us and we trained out the back of Three Rock Rovers hockey ground. But really, we had a set of jerseys and fans and that was it.
“We played Djurgardens in the national stadium, the Rasunda, and they had international players like Kim Kallstrom who went to Lyon - a top international footballer.
“When part-time players play against full-time players there should only be one outcome - the full-time team should win and 99% of the time they do.
“The mentality in our dressing room at the time was 'can we be competitive?' - but you were never going to win because you're not set up to win games of that nature.
“Full-time players have the opportunity to train and then rest and recover, whereas we were training in the evening after a day at work.
“I was at work the day of the home game. But how are you supposed to turn over a team with international players when you're at work and getting off a little early at 2.00pm.”
McGuinness continued: “Rovers had no identity when I played for them, if that makes sense. We hadn't got anything.
“When I was at St Pat's, we had Richmond Park. That was yours. You had something, you belonged there and you trained there.
“At Rovers, we had nothing. Just before I signed, players were chased out of parks by wardens. Soon after I signed, people would tell us we couldn’t do runs in the park.
“At one stage before a game, I noticed that my jersey wasn’t the normal No 5 that I wore.
There was always a little thread pulled on the right sleeve, but not on this shirt.
“I knew looking at it that it wasn’t the right one. It just didn’t fit right. I asked the kitman and because Rovers owed money to the laundrette, we had to wear last year's gear.”
The League of Ireland will forever be striving to better itself, but fast forward 20 years and expectations have changed dramatically.
McGuinness added: “You look at Shamrock Rovers now and realise just how far the club has come in a relatively short period of time.
“This modern day Rovers team are going into tomorrow’s game to win it and nobody will be calling it a shock if they do.”
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