St Pat's put their European credentials on the line tonight in a €1 million decider with CSKA Sofia at Tallaght Stadium.
They lead the Bulgarian giants 1-0 after last week’s first-leg thriller and hope to secure a Europa Conference League playoff against Brondby or Basel.
The Saints have already banked €750,000 up to this point and will secure another €300,000 if they get the job done in front of a 7,500-capacity sell-out.
And St Pat’s technical director Alan Mathews says the Saints want to emulate Shamrock Rovers by laying foundations in Europe for future gains.
Mathews said: “Our players can take heart and belief that a side like Rovers have done such a good job in getting to the group stages.
“We were able to match them in our games to date, albeit there’s a substantial points difference between us in the league.
“We’ll try and emulate them and match that result tomorrow.”
Mathews continued: “If you can proceed in Europe - and Dundlak did it - it gives you belief, cash flow and profile and so many opportunities to expand the club.
“The kind of money that’s available now, it’s a multitude of the prize money here for winning leagues and winning cups.
“It’s the type of revenue stream that you just don’t get organically, you get it by getting into that mix. It’s the golden goose.
“We’ve a plan to get to the group stages, but we’ve a long way to go to get to the group stages.
“The plan was to see if we could make progress in Europe. We have, we want to make further progress and build it from there.
“I think Rovers are probably now reflective of the foundations they’ve laid over the last number of years and the depth of the squad, learning from experiences.
“This year they were able to produce performances here that were exceptional and away from home they were exceptional. It gets them into a well-deserved group stage.
“We’ve a bit to go to get to that space but it’s something we aspire to and want to emulate.”
St Pat’s don’t have to win tonight to progress to the playoff round, but they expect CSKA to be more of a threat.
The result last week didn’t go down well back in Bulgaria and Mathews said: “It’s a big step for us to go and beat them again, but we’re more than capable of doing it.
“We put in a very good performance last week, players were very disciplined in and out of possession, we worked hard to deny them opportunities.
“They’re serial group qualifiers across Europe in various competitions and you take confidence from that.
“But we’re only at half-time really and it will require another big performance to go through.
“We expect a reaction from them, but we’ll also be looking at ourselves to improve in certain areas too.”
Mark Doyle misses the game as he serves the third game of a three-match suspension following his red card at home to NS Mura.
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