Be no pushover

work as well as we will but hopefully when it comes to on the pitch we’ll do the business on the day.’

While thoughts of Europe will no doubt dominate the thoughts of Dundalk supporters in the coming weeks, Rogers insisted the players must not lose sight of the league, with three tough games ahead before the clash with FH.

‘We’ll prepare the best way we can with that game in mind but we have three games that are coming up which are vitally important to the rest of our season and I think it’s important that we don’t take our eye off the ball in that regard because it has been our league form that gets us into the position of playing these big European games and it’s important that we keep up our momentum in the league.

‘I know we got beaten by Cork the last day but we’re still a point clear and it’s important that we try and pick up maximum points going into that Champions League game.

‘This period is crucial. People see the extra travel and the games in between the European games as a potential opportunity to upset teams but it’s important that we remain focused like we did last year and try and take as many points as we can.’

That said, Rogers knows that Dundalk will get nothing easy against Pat’s on Friday night.

‘Pat’s are the sort of team that come out and play. They’re very capable and have very good players all over the pitch. I think they’re the sort of team who, even though we’ve had good results against them recently, they’re well capable of beating us. Having said that we’ve had a good run against them since I’ve been here and going into the game lads should be fresh having had a week away training and we’ll be really focused now on that Pat’s game and we’ll be trying to put in a good performance to pick up three points.’