Paul Fennessy

THERE IS USUALLY a degree of unfamiliarity when coming up against European teams, but it is particularly true of Shamrock Rovers’ opposition in Malta this evening.

Ahead of the Champions League first qualifying round first-leg clash, which will take place on an artificial pitch, Floriana have gone on a significant recruitment drive.

“There’s been a lot of change in the attacking part of the pitch; they’ve recruited quite heavily in the last 10 days, they’ve signed seven or eight players, they’ve signed a centre-back as well, from Brazil,” Hoops boss Stephen Bradley told reporters on Monday.

“So they’ve gone and recruited quite heavily in the last two weeks or so. There’s been a lot of change, so it’s been hard to get a read, if you look at last year and how the manager likes to play. But the actual individuals, we won’t know for sure until we play.”

Bradley continued: “The conditions are really difficult. We know the pitch isn’t great in terms of the heat. We know they’re a team that are spending a lot of money, but again we’re a team that’s experienced on all fronts, and we’ll need that [tonight] for sure.”

While Shamrock Rovers are top of the Premier Division table after 25 matches, Floriana are in pre-season mode with their league campaign kicking off on 16 August.

The Hoops have faced Maltese opposition as recently as last December – they ended their Uefa Conference League campaign with a 3-1 victory against Hamrun Spartans.

But whether they can take much from that experience remains to be seen.

“It’s difficult to say for sure what type they’re going to be; we’ll just have to wait and see. Both full-backs [from last season] are there, one of the centre-backs, goalkeepers are there, the two midfielders are there, but after that there’s a lot of change.”

Danny Grant, Dan Cleary and Victor Ozhianvuna remain out injured for Rovers, and they are waiting on the doctor’s clearance for Danny Mandroiu to return. In addition, Tunmise Sobowale is unavailable due to illness, and Roberto Lopes has been given a few days off owing to his World Cup exploits with Cape Verde (despite the player offering to travel for the game in Malta).

Meanwhile, Gary O’Neill is back in training, having received the all-clear after his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

“He’s back in full training, and we’re just being guided by the doctor in terms of when we can get him back involved and in terms of game day, but he’s doing really well,” Bradley added.

“Gary’s frustrated at times because he wants to do more and that’s the type of character he is, but if you said to him in November ‘this is where you’d be in July,’ we would have taken your hand off.

“He’s in a really good place, and it’s great to have him back involved with the team and even for his own head. There’s only so much individual stuff you can do.”

Bradley also suggested new signing Jonathan Afolabi could potentially be involved in tonight’s game.

“We’ll make a decision [on Monday night] whether we’ll involve him. He’s travelled and is registered in time. That’s why we were pushing to get him signed. He’ll train, and then we’ll sit down and have a chat afterwards.

“Fitness-wise, he’s not too far off. He’s done a lot of work. He’s been over-cautious with the injury he had. I’ve been in contact with Jonathan well over a year now because we nearly had a deal done this time last year. The day before he was supposed to come, he did the injury in training, so we’ve been right on top of what it is and the rehab.

“He’s a good player, you see the ability. He’s committed to us for the long term, which is really, really important. We haven’t signed him for [tonight]. We’ve signed him for the long term, the bigger picture. So it’s just up to us now to protect him and get him back to the level and give him the platform to go and do his stuff. That might take a bit of time, but we’re quite comfortable with that.”