IT MAY TAKE as little as seven points for Shelbourne to advance from the league phase of the Uefa Conference League, in which case their stalemate with BK Häcken on Thursday night could be taken in one of two ways.

On a historic night for last season’s League of Ireland champions, Shels and their Swedish opponents battled to a 0-0 draw at Tallaght Stadium.

Such an even contest, in which chances were at a premium, left it open to interpretation as to whether it was a point gained or two dropped for Shels on what was their first-ever group-stage match in a major European tournament.

For manager Joey O’Brien, it was very much the former: a step taken towards the ultimate goal of creating even more history for a club that has hauled itself from the doldrums to an unprecedented position.

“It was about making sure we didn’t lose the game. We wanted to go out and win the game, but we knew we were playing tough opposition, a really good team.

“I’ll probably look back when I get home, watch the game back on the laptop and take the emotion out of it and see other things that I might have been disappointed with. Maybe we left two [points] behind.

“[But I'm] Immensely proud of the lads and the performance that they put in. I don’t think we gave up too many chances there tonight. So they got a clean sheet and get a point on the board. First game for the football club at this level, it’s a real proud one.”

The conditions at Tallaght Stadium — which hosted the game due to Tolka Park not meeting Uefa requirements for this stage of the competition — were difficult for both sides. Storm Amy puffed her cheeks to the extent that the side playing with the wind was able to largely determine the rhythm of the game — the hosts did so in the first half, the visitors more so in the second.

Nerves, too, inhibited Shels in the early going, but “that’s okay”, said their manager, who watched his players shake off such apprehension to gain the ascendancy as the first half progressed.

O’Brien, though, was particularly impressed by Shelbourne’s tactical discipline across 90 minutes, partly attributing it to lessons learned in their away-leg defeat to FC Zürich during the qualifying phase of last season’s Conference League.

“If you’re slightly off shape or you’re slightly making mistakes, you can get punished,” said the Shelbourne boss. “I thought they all stuck to it really well.

“It’s a tough night up there when you’re giving up possession against a tough team like that. You have a structure. It’s easy, I know, as fans; you want lads tearing off after each other and stuff like that. But at times, you have to take your chances and then if you jump out… You saw that, I think, a couple of times maybe in the second half: we jumped a little bit too aggressively and came out of our shape and they were able to play around us.

“So, you’ve got to bide your time, and then when you have a chance to really come out and attack and jump off a press, you’ve got to take that. I thought that’s why Kerr [McInroy] was probably our best player, really, on the night, because I felt he got that timing. He was able to jump on them and really affect them and get us turnovers, and then he showed his quality on the ball.”

It was, ultimately, a special night for Shelbourne supporters who, as recently as 2021, were following their side in the League of Ireland First Division.

And O’Brien revealed that the club’s fans, as well as volunteers past and present, had been central to the conversation during Shelbourne’s preparation for a landmark night in the club’s history.

But the former Ireland international vowed that Thursday night, and this league phase in general, should not be the apex for his side. European knockout football is achievable, O’Brien believes, and a draw with Häcken was a step in that direction.

“You see stories about people who went to their first game a long, long time ago. People like Darren Cleary here (Shelbourne’s media officer) that does it all for free and absolutely loves this football club, Shels until he dies. For people like that, it’s absolutely magic, these nights,” said O’Brien.

“I’m a blow-in in this football club, only [here] the last three or four years, so I’ve only been used to good times, to be honest, whereas the likes of Darren and people like that in the background have seen this club in the absolute depths of it. A night like this for them. That’s what it’s all about.

“Luke Byrne (technical director, former captain) obviously has a huge influence on the football club still; I think four years ago, give or take, he lifted the First Division title.

I think I saw a tweet from Dave Henderson (former head of football operations), he said something about six years ago, selling Christmas trees in Tolka Park with Dave O’Connor, the new CEO. And I just wanted to touch on that with the lads to say, ‘This is how far you’ve come — but don’t accept it.’

“This club, over the last number of years for us, probably shouldn’t have gotten the success we had, but we kept on pushing, driven all the time to keep on achieving and keep on reaching higher.

“That was the thing tonight,” O’Brien added. “Don’t be happy at where we are. Don’t be content by getting group-stage football, thinking, ‘Job done, we can go out and enjoy ourselves.’ We said that to the lads: it’s about winning, it’s about qualifying, and ultimately if we don’t do that, we’re going to be disappointed.

“We wanted to win, but obviously if you don’t win, you don’t lose it. A great night for the football club.”

- With reporting by Paul Fennessy