IT MAY not have been the fairytale start Shamrock Rovers manager Michael O’Neill and his players had been hoping for but the Northerner, while clearly disappointed, feels there might be a happier ending for the club in this competition as they get to grips with the challenges that lie ahead.

“It’s been a difficult game for the lads but I don’t think the task generally is any more daunting than it was yesterday,” he said after conceding his own inability to get out to see Rubin play because of Rovers’ schedule here had made things especially difficult last night.

“Maybe if we hadn’t conceded the goal so early the pattern of the game might have been slightly different but sometimes you just have to acknowledge the quality of the opposition.

“At times they showed their class tonight with the way they kept possession and did well right through the team.

“It’s a steep learning curve for our players but there are a lot of things we can take away from this evening. Obviously, in terms of lessons learnt, not conceding in the first two minutes would be high on the agenda but then they are probably the best side that we’ve faced in Europe.

“I think when you look at the squad, one that’s been assembled from all corners of the globe at no little expense; it’s a club that envisages itself being a regular in the Champions League and strives to achieve that.

“Juventus, to be fair, were probably in a bit of a transitional period when we played them while Copenhagen and Partizan are excellent sides but even they wouldn’t have anything like the financial resources Rubin appear to have. If you take the figure being quoted for what they paid for Obafemi Martins (reportedly €17 million), we could run our club for 10 years on that.

“We’ll have more time to prepare for the other games in the group, though, and we’ll learn from this. And if you look at our results in Europe, probably our better results have been away from home. Maybe it suits us better to set up in the way we do away. Either way, the lads will pick themselves up quickly after the disappointment of this.”