Drogheda Utd (0) v IK Start (1), Dalymount Park, 7.45: Having provided a favour in getting IK Start manager Stig Inge Bjornebye into Ireland yesterday, Drogheda United will direct their charity toward home as they strive to overturn a 1-0 deficit before a vociferous Dalymount Park crowd in excess of 5,000 tonight.
Bjornebye's worse-for-wear passport was deemed invalid when the Start party set out from Kristiansand, while midfielder Bjarte Aarsheim had to travel on a later flight as he had mislaid his passport.
But using their contacts with the FAI and Garda, Drogheda helped get Bjornebye into the country.
"The main sheet of the passport was a bit rough round the edges and the hostess wasn't happy and she said 'look' and ripped it out," explained Bjornebye, the former Liverpool and Blackburn defender.
Whether Bjornebye will need his passport again for the first round proper rests in the balance.
"(Drogheda) gave us a good game in Kristiansand," he said. "We knew what to expect - a physical, enthusiastic team."
With eight successive wins, five under Bjornebye since he came in, Start are in their best form of the season and can call on a central midfield pairing of Kristofer Haestad and Fredrik Stromstad - who got the only goal in the first match - that started for Norway in last week's 1-1 draw with Brazil in Oslo. But there is quiet confidence about Drogheda that they can turn the tie.
"We're really looking forward to it and I think we've a great chance of going through," said midfielder Paul Keegan, a member of Don Givens's under-21 side that beat Greece 2-0 in Athens last week.
"Over there we sat in, but we had chances to nick an away goal and everybody came off the pitch disappointed we didn't get something from the game. That showed . . . we can beat the likes of Start."
Having to chase the game, Drogheda must strike a balance between adventure and caution.
"That is at the back of our minds; not conceding an away goal, because if we do we'll have to score three," said Keegan. "But the defence we have is very solid and that has been the basis of our success this season - having a good back five. Up front, I believe we're more than capable of getting goals."
Getting his selection right in the absence of suspended right-back Brian Shelley is the challenge for Paul Doolin. Being without strikers Tony Grant, injured, and Declan O'Brien, ineligible, hasn't helped.
Reverting to a more orthodox 4-4-2 line-up, from the five-man midfield he deployed in Norway, is Doolin's probable approach.
Damian Lynch should drop back from midfield to cover for Shelley with Stephen Bradley and Keegan in the centre and James Keddy coming in on the left flank. Glen Fitzpatrick is likely to partner Shane Barrett in attack.
"Going to Norway, the objective for us was to keep the game alive and we've certainly done that," said Doolin. "When there's only one goal in it you always have a chance."
