Labelled arrogant at Richmond Park, Mura have all the incentive they need to slap St Pat’s down to size tonight.
But Saints defender Joe Redmond - handed the captain’s armband for the last two games - insists the Dubliners have enough about them to withstand a backlash.
Much was made of the fact the Slovenian outfit had beaten Tottenham in the group stages of last season’s Europa Conference League.
They were put on a pedestal before arriving in Ireland, but just four of that team faced the Saints a week ago and Tim Clancy’s men were the better side throughout.
St Pat’s should have won but for Mura seizing on a Harry Brockbank error to score before Chris Forrester equalised on the hour and then nearly nicked it late on.
Forrester unleashed on Mura after the game, suggesting they were ‘arrogant’ in their approach and were treating their trip to Dublin like a ‘jolly-up’.
In a modern world, you can be sure those words filtered back to Slovenia and will be used to fire up the hosts tonight in temperatures close to 30 degrees.
But Redmond says St Pat’s are in no mood to let this opportunity slip with CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria or North Macedonian outfit Makedonija waiting in the third round.
Redmond said: “I think it’s within us as a group to put in a performance and get through the leg - we’re well capable.
“Since the start of the season, it’s been about trying to find consistency in our performances and, after the break, I think we found that.
“Results wise, we’ve struggled a little bit and maybe we didn’t get the rub of the green.
“But after the break, more times than not, we’re going to get results with the performances we've been putting in and last Thursday was an example of that.”
Redmond, 22, who is a cousin of ex-Ireland international Stephen and Alan Quinn and who only made his European debut last week, continued: “We did our homework.
“I don’t think we faced anything from Mura where it was ‘Ah, that’s a shock to us.”
Immediately after that first-leg encounter, Saints boss Clancy suggested Mura may have viewed St Pat’s as an “easy touch”.
And Redmond reckons the Inchicore men did catch them by surprise.
“I’m not sure how much they know about the League of Ireland over in Slovenia,” he said, with the team settling into their Slovenian base yesterday.
“They could have come over thinking, ‘This is an easy enough game for us, we got to the groups last year’ or whatever.
“We were hearing it a lot that this side beat Spurs. But that was last year and it’s a new season.
“They have a lot of good players and we have to respect them.
“We can’t go there and be ‘Ah yeah, this will be like the last game’, because I feel like every game is different.
“If you play in the league one week and another week, it’s always a different ball game.”
St Pat’s will be without Mark Doyle who serves a suspension following his red card last week in an off-the-ball clash with Mura’s Klemen Pucko.
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