THE season has scarcely started, but this one is important, this matters. Pride, as much as performance, will be the spur when Shelbourne entertain SK Brann of Norway in the first leg of their. `Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round lie at Tolka Park tonight (7.45).

A restorative win is required, primarily for Shelbourne but also. for the Irish game as a whole. Not that the progressive Tolka outfit need to be saddled with the tag of Great White Hope, after the meritorious performances of Sligo, St Patrick's and Bohemians in European fare.

Despite an outstanding season highlighted by a double Cup success, for Shelbourne the memory of last year's 6-0 aggregate stuffing by Akranes undermined by on and off field ill discipline which resulted in an internal investigation and fines still sticks in the craw.

Shelbourne's raison d'etre is to qualify for Europe and set standards there. That is what the club is about. They let themselves down last season and they know it. If anything, that memory ought to assist them tonight.

Twelve months on they appear eminently better prepared. Despite plenty of covetous overtures from wealthier Northern clubs in the immediate post Bosman era they managed to retain their first team squad en bloc.

Furthermore, Dave Campbell has looked worth every penny of his estimated £20,000 transfer from champions St Patrick's Athletic. The flying French full back, Pascal Vaudcquin, plays the game the Shelbourne way and should be a big hit with the Tolka faithful.

Of course, Shelbourne are not competing on an equal footing. That Brann are half way through their season and boast an average attendance of 13,500 (the highest in Norway) underlines the point.

Occasions such as these are always a relative step into the unknown. Lillestrom's 4-0 home win over Sligo in the Intertoto Cup theoretically supports Branji's status as favourites for the tie.

However, with some assistance from the FAI/NL, Shelbourne are both better prepared than Sligo were a month ago and they themselves were a year ago. Also, with due respect to Steve Cotterill's rebuilt side, Shelbourne ought to have more arrows in their quiver.

If the Dublin public rallies around them and Shelbourne get in amongst Brann from an early stage, then an early goal could precipitate the kind of home via tory which would make them favourites to progress from the second leg a fortnight hence.

The omens are encouraging. A three goal salvo in the first 10 minutes instigated a 4-2 win over Aberdeen, the worth of that win was then augmented by the Scots' 4-1 away win in Lithuania on Tuesday. Huddersfield were also dealt with confidently (2-0), as were Tranmere on Monday, albeit for 45 minutes.

The Brann manager, Kjell Tennjford, yesterday emphasised the threat posed by Mark Rutherford on the left, though Shelbourne have pace aplenty to trouble a side expected to follow traditionally big, physical Norwegian outfits.

Encouragingly, Brann have been porous in losing three of their last four league games, and so Tennjford tempers Norwegian expectations of a convincing away win (3-0 according to one brash Brann fan to whom Richardson spoke) with expectations of a 50-50 tie.

"During the last month we have had some problems to win games, so I think we have a lot of work to do to get back into the same form as we had a month ago, says Tennjford, a genial, moustachioed young manager not unlike Richardson in appearance. "The ideal result is, of course, to win, but I think we would be satisfied with a draw."

That scenario, especially 0-0, would not be a doomsday one for Shelboume, though Richardson accepts "ideally we need to win". Preferably, one might add, by two clear goals.

Richardson is hanging much of his hopes on the talismanic Tony Sheridan. The mercurial one has been troubled by a knee medial ligament strain, but is progressing favourably and trained last night.

"This is a big test for us, as much a mental one, to see if we can take that next step up the ladder. I don't want to be disparaging to the domestic game, but this is our most important game of the season in my mind. If we have fire in our bellies and belief in our hearts, then it will depend on how the Norwegians' react.

We have to have some of the Irish attitude which served the international team in Europe. We have to have some belief in ourselves. I think we're suited to European competition and this game will tell a very, very good story."

Indeed it will, and presumably not another one of the horror variety.

. Cork City have placed Pat Morley on the transfer list. The prolific 30 year old striker, a member of the exclusive club of strikers to have scored over 100 league goals, is liable to fetch a transfer fee in the region of £20,000, with Shelbourne (under his former Cork manager Richardson), Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians amongst the favourites to sign him.