STEPHEN KENNY HAS fought enough battles regarding perception over the last five years to now start worrying about how a whole league is viewed.

But as he returns to European action with a League of Ireland club, the St Patrick’s Athletic manager could not escape the obvious.

Derry City’s exit to Bruno’s Magpies – now the most famous pub team from Gibraltar – in the Europa Conference League first-round qualifying round was a grim result.

And not just for the coefficient.

In terms of respectability and, yes, perception, the defeat was a brutal one for the League of Ireland.

Shelbourne narrowly came through their clash with St Joseph’s and stirring displays against FC Zurich over the next week can only help, while Shamrock Rovers’ win over Vikingur Reykjavik in the first qualifying round of the Champions League means they will have at least three more European ties this season.

They are 2-0 down to Sparta Prague after Tuesday’s first-leg defeat so will likely be continuing their run in the Europa League after the return.

Now it’s St Pat’s entering the fray, at the second-round stage of Conference League qualifying due to a bye.

FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein are the opponents tonight, and the expectation from some might be that Pat’s should progress and avoid another humbling for a League of Ireland side.

“I can’t really concern myself with that. Even if it is an overall viewpoint. I can only focus on the game. We know they have some good players,” Kenny said.

“They are a very possession-based team. Their coach has a De Zerbi-type philosophy in that they try to play out of a lot of areas of the park. That’s the way they play. We have to be ready for that.

“I can’t worry about the implications, the perceptions. We’ve just got to make sure we are ready. We just want, we’ve just got to focus on the performance. You know, certainly it’s a big incentive for the player… Everybody is a bit wounded on Sunday. So it’s a big incentive.”

Vaduz currently compete in the Swiss second tier and they reached the group stages of this competition in 2022/23 – finishing bottom in a group containing AZ Alkmaar, Dnipro-1 and Apollon Limassol.

Last season they crashed out in their first-round qualifier to Neman Grodno of Belarus, so even in the midst of a disappointing league campaign and on the back of that FAI Cup defeat to Derry City which Kenny admitted the players were “wounded” by, this tie still provides an opportunity to progress.

That is, of course, provided Pat’s put on two of their best performances of the campaign. Kenny also confirmed that striker Ruairi Keating is unlikely to be available and that teenager Mason Melia will lead the line. New signing Al-Amin Kazeem suffered a strain in training and will be absent.

“I’m realistic to know that this game on its own – they will have high expectations of progressing themselves and from our point of view, we’ve to focus on getting a big win,” Kenny said.

“From our point of view it’s an opportunity to get a big European win, all the European wins are cherished and appreciated by St Pat’s supporters, it would be good for the team to get a victory in these two legs.”

Pat’s winger Jake Mulraney spoke earlier in the day about coming out of this “rut” and how the squad had to remain positive for the rest of the season.

Kenny namechecked the Dubliner early into his reign as someone fans need to take to their hearts and show some love to get the best from him, and he’s determined to show he

“I knew what I took on. I knew it was going to be a difficult job when I took it,” Kenny said.

“That’s what I’m sort of motivated to do. It’s not really to take a team from second to first or whatever. Consistently, I took Bohemians, they were ninth and the following year won the league. Derry were ninth and they lost the league the following year by a point or whatever and won trophies, and Dundalk were a team that were bottom and we won the league within two years.

“That’s sort of what I like to do, take a team from the bottom and revitalise a team quickly if I can, not over a longer period but over a shorter period. That’s what I enjoy rebuilding, that’s what motivates me.

“This will be a tough job because a lot of the teams are… There are a lot of very good clubs and some coaches are doing brilliantly, a lot of very good clubs with good structures.

“Obviously the stadiums are still, and the academies are still, the stadiums are still terrible. We get 5,000 every week and we can only have 2,500 at this. The European games should be the ones where you get a bigger crowd, but it’s halved.

“Obviously Shelbourne had issues as well, and other clubs. Those things are such a let down.”

It’s the sort of stuff that is far more important to get right to ensure sustained progress, rather than worry about the perception of short-term results.

• Live tonight – Europa Conference League second-round qualifier, first leg: St Patrick’s Athletic v FC Vaduz, 7.45pm, LOITV.ie.