Bray Wanderers, the FAI Cup holders, will rely heavily on the talents of Irish under-21 international striker, Jason Byrne, when they face Grasshopers Zurich in today's UEFA Cup first round tie in Switzerland.
Byrne is likely to be used as a lone striker by manager Pat Devlin as Bray attempt to keep the tie alive for the second leg in a fortnight's time.
Byrne (21) has double reason to show that he is capable of playing at a much higher level than the Eircom National League first division standard.
"Last Sunday my cousin, Robbie Keane, scored a magnificent winning goal for Wolves against Manchester City at Maine Road," said Byrne.
"I would like to keep it in the family and score against the Swiss side."
Byrne, scorer of two goals in the second replay of the FAI cup final against Finn Harps at the end of last season, is regarded as a player of immense potential and would love to follow in his cousin's footsteps and play in England.
Devlin has no doubt that Byrne can play a major role. "As he showed against Celtic (in a recent friendly), he can cause problems for even the most experienced defenders. This lad has the opportunity to go a long way."
Devlin will give late fitness tests to Philip Keogh and Maurice Farrell before naming his starting line-up just prior to today's 6.30 p.m. kick-off.
After the 10-0 hammering suffered by St Patrick's Athletic at the hands of Moldovan club, FC Zimbru, in the Champions League qualifier, there will be no foolish predictions from Devlin about the possible outcome against Grasshoppers.
The club last week appointed former Blackburn chief, Roy Hodgson, as manager. Grasshoppers are just one point behind Swiss Premier Division leaders, St Gallen, in the 12-team league with 12 goals scored and five conceded in their seven matches to date.
"Obviously it will not be easy. But we have done all our homework in a meticulous fashion," said Devlin.
The Bray boss gave last Sunday's game with Longford a miss so that he could watch Grasshoppers defeat Lugano in a league game.
"Along with my assistants, John Ryan and Bobby Smith, we arrived at the game unannounced. I'm not sure if the Grasshoppers officials were too happy when we started to video part of the action.
"As usual in these type of matches, the first 15 or 20 minutes will be vital. If we can hold out, the second leg in Bray in a fortnight's time could be very interesting."
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)