Rogers ready and able for Cruyff test

Bohermeen man Gary Rogers will be facing Jordi Cruyff, son of the legendary Johan, in the second round of UEFA"s new flagship competition the Europa League, at Richmond Park, Inchicore on Thursday night, 7.45. The former Meath footballer helped St Ultan"s to the 2008 IFC title despite his commitments with Galway Utd last season in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. His displays with Galway earned recognition from the Meath Chronicle / Cusack Hotels prestigious 'outstanding achievement" awards and he was one of six individuals honoured at the annual gala event last February at Knightsbrook Hotel. Currently Rogers is first choice goalkeeper for St Patrick"s Athletic following a move to the Dublin-based club at the end of last season which also saw Galway Utd manager and former Republic of Ireland player Jeff Kenna take over the reins at the Stadium of Light, as the Inchicore venue is known. Last year St Pat"s enjoyed a great run in the UEFA Cup and were only deprived of a place in the knock-out group stages by the mighty Hertha Berlin following some marvellous performances in the early rounds of the competition. Next Thursday at Richmond Park, in front of a capacity 3,000 crowd, all seated under stringent UEFA crowd-control regulations, St Pat"s will kick-off their bid for glory this season against Valletta FC from Malta who beat Keflavik from Iceland 5-2 (3-0 and 2-2) on aggregate in the first round. Valletta were 3-0 up from the first leg a fortnight ago which was played at the Malta FA"s Centenary Stadium on a synthetic pitch similar to the one used by Dundalk at Oriel Park. Cruyff, a former Man Utd and Barcelona player, has teamed up with the Maltese club this season and along with another Dutch man, Geert Den Ouden, they will pose some serious problems for Rogers and his colleagues who have struggled to find any consistency this season. St Pat"s last two results clearly demonstrate that trait in their form as they beat Cork City 1-0 at Turner"s Cross last week and then on Friday night lost (1-2) at home to Galway Utd in front of a contingent from Valletta FC who will take some encouragement from that result. The standard of Maltese football is quite poor and grass pitches are scarce. Three venues host the action and one of those is the National Stadium where Jack Charlton"s Republic of Ireland famously qualified for Italia 90 with a 2-0 win over the hosts back in 1989. They play a 10-team Premier League from September to April and are currently out of season which should give St Pat"s a slight edge although if Valletta opt for a 5.30 kick-off, as they did against Keflavik, the heat and humidity will work against the Dubliners. Rogers is looking forward to his first taste of European football as he left Drogheda before any of their UEFA games and is conscious of the big opportunity this game presents to advance to the next round. 'We are all looking forward to the game, it"s a dream come true for me as I hadn"t even thought about European football,' Rogers told the Meath Chronicle. 'Valletta are out of season at the moment, but we will have to show them a lot of respect as they came through the first round impressively with that 5-2 victory over Keflavik. 'They also had someone at our game on Friday night against Galway, I was very disappointed with that result, but we will have to put it behind us and got on with the job. 'We also have details on their first round game so that will be a help and I suppose we will have to wary of a player of the calibre of Jordi Cruyff, even if he is 35 now, he has a lot of big game experience. 'The usual targets will have to be achieved, not to concede a goal at home and I suppose we would have to aim for at least a 2-0 victory to have a realistic chance of making it to the next round,' he added. St Pat"s are now in the middle of the League of Ireland season and that has to be a huge advantage in the early rounds of the competition. 'We have plenty of games played at this stage so fitness will not be a problem, but we have a lot of injuries, if we can get anything like our strongest team on the pitch then we would have to be optimistic,' stated Rogers. 'Our Premier League is very competitive at the moment, with only 10 teams it is very tight at the top and the bottom of the table, playing everyone four times is the only negative aspect as it can get a bit repetitive, especially if you draw a team in the cup and it goes to a replay, that would be six times. 'However, there is a good spirit in the panel and Thursday night"s assignment is just a game that we have to win, we are all looking forward to it and hopefully we can make it the next round,' added the Bohermeen man. Kick-off at Richmond Park is at 7.45, tickets €15.