David Sneyd reports from Alkmaar

MAYBE IT IS apt that Shelbourne arrived in Alkmaar for this Uefa Conference League clash with AZ and found that their plush parkland hotel used to be a prison.

Joey O’Brien’s side certainly have become prisoners of consequence during their league phase campaign. It is one that has mostly been filled with varying forms of self-sabotage leading to a deep sense of anguish.

Conceding a needless corner under no pressure away to Shkendija in North Macedonia was the first in a string of errors that resulted in a 91st-minute own goal. In a game they should have won, Shels came away with nothing.

Then, after the most recent 1-0 defeat at home FC Drita three weeks ago, in which they had defender James Norris sent off after just 16 minutes, O’Brien was forced into his own form of solitary confinement to come to terms with the manner of how things panned out, and how his side had picked up just one point from their first three games.

“I don’t switch off. I’m on all the time, it’s 24/7, so that’s where I am. I suppose it’s the only thing I’ve been used to since I was like 15, so I didn’t really have much time off in that sense,” O’Brien said.

Even with 10 men Shels were the better side against the Kosovans, but striker Mipo Odubeko missed a glaring opportunity to put the Reds ahead before an almost comical situation which saw the visitors take the lead courtesy of a harmless shot from outside the box that took two deflections and left Wessel Speel stranded.

“There’s not much to lose,” the Shels goalkeeper, speaking on his return to his home country, said. “We feel prepared, we feel ready.”

A week-long training camp in Spain has helped to sharpen minds and refocus ahead of the task at hand. O’Brien described this clash with AZ as “a monster game”, one that will require their best performance to date if they are to get anything from the game.

The phrase “using the hurt for the hunt” is something O’Brien referenced earlier in the summer when Croatian champions Rijeka came to Tolka Park and overturned a 2-1 deficit after Shels produced a stunning performance away from home.

O’Brien brought it up again ahead of this clash, although the majority of the build up was understandably dominated by the presence and influence Troy Parrott will likely have on proceedings.

“I suppose over the last couple of weeks it’s been great hasn’t it, in our country,” O’Brien acknowledged.

“The two games, the performances that he put in, the results, the lift he gave the country. I think the lift he gave football in the country, I think it was needed, someone needed to do it. It was great, he stood up and done it.”

Stifling Parrott is now the challenge for Shels if they are to stand any chance of producing the kind of stunning revival that the striker himself helped stir in Ireland’s World Cup qualification bid.

The brace against Portugal and hat-trick in Hungary, followed by scoring against Heerenveen on his return to club duty at the weekend, took his tally for the season to 19 goals.

This evening will be a chance to witness Parrott up close in what has become his natural habitat. It’s one in which he says he has learned to become a better professional, focusing more of his energy on the work he does in the gym as well as prioritising the amount of rest and sleep he gets to help recovery for the high volume of games and demands on the body.

“But in the end of the day, they have to do it and to reach [their level] themselves. We are there to be hard on them, to push them, to convince them because like I said the player himself needs to be convinced that it will help,” his manager, Maarten Martens, said.

“And sometimes in the start it is difficult and that the fact with Troy as well, he was used to focusing on training sessions but especially in games. If you only focus on that then you’re missing out a big part and he started to understand this more and more.

“I already explained in the past to some colleagues of you as well, that technically, tactically, he’s on a high level. He’s a team player. He’s stable. Everybody likes him. Physically he’s improving, the better he will get. No doubt about that. And he’s on his road to become the best version of himself. It’s up to us and to me as a head coach to take out as much as possible.”

Still, you can take the boy out of Summerhill and all that. His admission that he celebrated that historic hat-trick in Budapest with a Zinger burger from KFC raised a few smiles in the pre-match press conference.

“They made it fresh, it was nice,” he smiled, sitting alongside his manager.

Understandably, the majority of the focus was on the Republic of Ireland international as he prepares to face the League of Ireland club closest to his home in the north inner city.

On the Shels website they described this game as a trip to “Troytown,” something the man himself practically balked at when it was put to him. “No. I’m part of a group. I’m part of a team, and that’s something big for us as a club.”

So much of the pre-match scene was familiar yet still had a feeling of being unique given the scenario. Here was the home side’s star player being asked questions about Irish opponents and using familiar stock answers about expecting a tough game against a hardworking side.

Dutch media asked him about being a Shamrock Rovers supporter and he was quick to play down those allegiances now, and when asked to describe the rivalry between Rovers and Shels he also pointed out that the bigger derby in the city was with Bohemians.

Parrott also answered questions on his club future, insisting that he was “comfortable” and “in a good place” just where he is at Alkmaar.

It certainly feels like the perfect, picturesque place to go about your business without much added stress. At this time of year, too, with lights and decorations beginning to appear, each set of cobbled, narrow streets are like a nostalgic Christmas card.

Shels just have to make sure they don’t provide any gifts to Troy tonight.