Can Tolka Park cauldron help Shels to famous victory?

RTÉ News​

14 hours ago

Shelbourne are potentially 90 minutes away from securing European league stage football.
They welcome Croatian outfit Rijeka to Tolka Park tonight with a 2-1 lead to protect after they plundered a brilliant win on the road in last week's first leg.
This is the third qualifying round of the Europa League, so victory will send Joey O'Brien's men into a two-legged play-off against either Greek side PAOK or Austrian outfit Wolfsberger while also guaranteeing them a place in the Conference League league stage at a minimum.
It would be a remarkable achievement for the Reds, and a raucous home crowd will play their part, according to Richie Towell and David McMillan.
"What an opportunity," said Towell, appearing on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
Referencing his experience of playing for Dundalk against Hadjuk Split, Towell went on: "(In Dundalk's match) the atmosphere was like nothing I've ever seen. It was incredible.
"For Shelbourne to go over there and get a victory, honestly, that's one of the best victories I think a League of Ireland team has got in the European competitions. What a result that was to go over there and it sets them up perfectly now for the home leg."
St Pat's had to decamp to Tallaght Stadium for their Conference League clash against Beskitas but Shels are staying on their own patch for this one - a factor that could prove crucial.
"(Rijeka) are most definitely not going to relish going to Tolka Park and trying to get a result off Shelbourne," Towell added.
"I think the Qarabag game (in the Champions League qualifiers) for Joey O'Brien - not just Joey O'Brien but the players as well - they'll take great learning from that.
"They had a little bit too much respect for (Qarabag) in the first half (of the first leg). Qarabag just ran all over them. I think they'll have a slightly different approach now. I don't think they'll be gung-ho by any means but I think they'll put a little bit more pressureon Rijeka and just make sure they're not sitting back too much and inviting them on.
"Joey's done an incredible job, I'm not sitting here telling him what to do, but I think he'll have great learnings from the previous round to take into this one."
McMillan famously scored two goals when Dundalk beat BATE Borisov 3-0 in Tallaght to progress to the Champions League play-off stage back in 2016. Legia Warsaw beat them, but the Lilywhites dropped into the Europa League group stages in what was a breakthrough achievement.
"I think having the game at Tolka is also a huge help," he said. "If you look at that Pat's game (against Besiktas), moving it to Tallaght on a big open pitch against a team like Besiktas certainly didn't do them any favours.
"You look at Shels, it's a big advantage to keep that game at Tolka Park. It means you can keep the game compact, it's a tighter pitch, it's not as good a surface even as Tallaght. All of that should help them out in terms of trying to keep Rijeka out and use your pace, the likes of Mipo (Odubeko), the likes of Dan Kelly if they're playing to try and break.
"Having the away game first, Joey probably set the team up in a way that was to limit chances and hit them on the counter-attack. He can probably keep that approach this week.