Our opponents are ‘not mugs’ – Conor Kearns keeps a cool head as Shelbourne stay focused before European date

Shels are back in a UEFA competition with a first-round tie in the Europa Conference League against Gibraltar side St Joseph’s, while FC Zurich await the winners.

Even though this will be their first taste of European action in seven seasons of senior football, Kearns says Damien Duff will not allow his charges to be distracted.

“The manager hasn’t spoken about the European games, they are not the priority as it’s not for a couple of weeks. We know who we have but we’ve not gone into the threats they pose in detail,” says Kearns.

“They are not in European competition if they are mugs, we know they will be a good side. A League of Ireland team has not gone and hammered a team in Europe in quite a while, so we will respect them. It’s a tough game no matter who you get. It’s my first time in Europe, so I am the last person who could take someone for granted.

“You can’t have the mindset of thinking about the second round in Europe before we’ve qualified, but in the same way, we can’t think about Europe before we play Drogheda this Thursday.

“We have genuinely not spoken about the game against St Joseph’s. When it comes around, we will approach it with the right mentality, that’s something that is non-negotiable in this dressing room.”

Duff had said before and after the mid-season break that he would know if his players had over-indulged on holiday and assumed they could get away with minor sins, given their status as league leaders. But Kearns says no such pep-talk was needed.

“Us being league leaders doesn’t come into it, that’s the way he [Duff] was as a player, Joey O’Brien, the same. They demand high standards.

“Yes, it was a break in the league but a break to recover and refresh, not to go on a piss-up and take the mickey as we still have to train, so you have to come back in good shape. You get knocks and niggles across a season, so you need your time to rest. We are pleased with the standards we had, we went away but came back in good shape,” says Kearns.

“We’re in a good place but only at the moment, moments come and go very quickly, so we need to keep up the standards we’ve set this season. I know it sounds like a throwaway line to take it game by game, take games in blocks, but that’s how it has to be.

“The season comes at you so fast. If you start daydreaming, you lose sight of your goals,” added the ’keeper, who registered his 12th clean sheet of the season (and a third in successive games) in Friday’s 2-0 dismissal of Galway United.