Their recent form in Europe suggests getting a good result in Riga this afternoon shouldn’t be beyond them but for St Patrick’s Athletic sealing the deal in the second leg has proved a problem over the last few years.

It's lucky then, that they've been on a bit of a roll back at home. Liam Buckley and Ger O'Brien rattle off the countries where the Dubliners have gone to in recent seasons and got a result but they need look no further back than the Legia Warsaw games for a reminder of the fact even a share of the spoils against Skonto will leave them with work to do back in Richmond Park next week.

Full squad

“Of course you’d prefer to score a few goals and take a bit of a lead back home with us,” says Buckley, “but the first priority is to just take the game back there. Sure, we’ll be playing to win but the reality is you have to play not to lose as well.”

Buckley has virtually a full squad to choose from with Killian Brennan, Christy Fagan and Conan Byrne all declaring themselves fit for the tie, after recent problems but none is guaranteed of returning to a side with real momentum.

St Pat’s are unbeaten since the their rather tame defeat by Dundalk at home and since beating Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup they have won four on the trot in the league with 12 goals scored and two conceded.

That, says O’Brien, is what he and his team-mates have to bring into today’s game.

“We went down to 10 men but it was a comfortable performance that night from Dundalk’s point of view and after something like that I think as footballers you need to take a long hard look at yourself, all of us, the guys who were playing the guys who weren’t playing.

“But the following week’s training was really good; Liam made a few changes to the team, a few fresh faces came in, which can help, and we’ve just kicked on from there.

“Having the likes of myself and Christy back adds that bit more competition but the dynamic just seems to be good at the moment. You just look the likes of Chris Forrester, Conan Byrne, Aaron Greene, when players like that are playing with no fear, it’s great.

Different things

“Watching them from behind is fantastic; it fills you full of confidence and the form we’ve been showing lately sort of feels the way it did when we were winning the league back in 2013; you’re turning up to games and everybody’s raring to go. You’re not afraid to try different things and when you do they seem to come off.”

That all said, O’Brien is the first to admit quite a few European campaigns have suffered death by misadventure and “game management” will, he says, be a key element if St Patrick’s are to edge their way past a club that still boasts a fair amount of individual talent, including former Bohemians favourite, Mindaugas Kalonas.

The the home side possesses strength and speed up front in the form of Vladislavs Gutkovskis and Arturs Karašausks, two young strikers who have struck up a remarkably productive partnership.

“One is bigger than the other,” says Buckley of the pair. “Gutkovskis is kind of a British style of striker; hustly, gamey, a fella who runs into the channels well. Karašausks is technically very good and they look to get the ball up front to them very quickly so we’ll have to defend well.

“But we know we have to do quite a few things well if we’re going to be in a good position going into the second leg because they’re a good side,” he says.

“Thankfully the lads have been playing well lately. It’s been good, we’ve scored a few, created a lot of chances and not conceded too many. If we keep it along those lines then we’re definitely in with a good shout of going through.”