SOCCER/Uefa Cup, first round, second leg: It's a measure of just how much things have changed off the field in Derry that the four members of the PSNI that travelled to Paris this week not only dropped in on the reception thrown at the Irish embassy here on Tuesday night but passed much of the night casually mingling with players and having their photographs taken with them.
On the field there is a sense that things have moved on too although whether they have quite reached the point where Stephen Kenny's men can really dump a team of PSG's quality out of a European competition will remain a matter for speculation until this evening's encounter at the Parc des Princes.
The bookies' view is an emphatic "non" with Derry priced at anything between 10 and 20 to 1 to actually win the game and 11 to 2 or better simply to be level at the end of 90 minutes.
"They're no fools," said Kenny of the men who set the odds yesterday, but already this season they have got it wrong twice with Derry twice springing surprises away from home in the earlier stages of their European adventure. If they were to do it a third time it would comfortably overshadow anything achieved to date.
History certainly suggests that it will not be easy. In the first leg of this tie they became the first Irish side to keep a clean sheet against French opposition and, while they do not necessarily need to win this evening in order to progress to next Tuesday's draw for the competition's group stages, they will have to break more new ground for an National League side as none has ever avoided defeat on French soil.
"I think we've already surprised a few people with the results that we've had and I think that we've shown how far the Irish game has come on in the last few years," said Kenny yesterday. "Scottish football was always considered that bit ahead of us and we went there and won well. Scandinavian football was not only considered ahead of us but constantly held up as the example the Irish game should follow . . . well, Gothenburg are probably the biggest club in Scandinavia and we beat them home and away.
"Now the French are another step on again and, to be honest, I don't think that us winning here would prove anything in terms of us being capable of playing in the French league or anything like that, but we did show we could compete in the game at the Brandywell and now it's a one off. We might end up losing yet, but we certainly believe we're in with a shout and I think it would be a bit much for anybody to say we don't have a chance."
Kenny's preparation could hardly be said to have been ideal with two gruelling games against Shelbourne taking their toll on outfield players who had to work particularly hard after sendings off. Sean Hargan and Kevin Deery do both appear to have shaken off knocks picked up in last Friday's league encounter and so Pat McCourt is the only serious doubt for the visiting side.
The presence of Ruaidhri Higgins, who did well in the Gothenburg games, at yesterday's press conference suggests that he could be in for a recall with Deery possibly occupying the wider position in order to facilitate the switch.
Whatever line up he settles on, Kenny knows that his men must impose themselves to a greater degree in midfield and, if the chances come up front, they must take them but he hopes that the home side's reversion to their own preferred style of play may help his players to assert themselves.
"Against us at the Brandywell they pressed up all over the place," he says. "We do that ourselves, it's the style of play in Ireland but it's not normally theirs. Against Nancy at the weekend they let the other team have the ball and consolidate in midfield. I think that's more the way they'll play in this game and I think it might actually suit us."
Probable teams
PSG: Landreau; Mendy, Traore, Armand, Drame; Pancrate, Rozehnal, Cisse, Rodriguez; Pauleta, Kalou.
DERRY CITY: Forde; McCallion, Kelly, Oman, Hargan; Deery, Higgins, Molloy, Martyn, Brennan; Beckett.
