Conan Byrne's verdict on St Patrick's Athletic and Sligo Rovers' Europa Conference League ties

After Shamrock Rovers' Champions League chances were left dangling by a thread on Tuesday, this week's agendas for the League of Ireland clubs in Europe continue on Thursday in the Europa Conference League.

Having seen off Bala Town of Wales via a penalty shootout last week, Sligo Rovers' next assignement is Scottish Premiership side Motherwell in the second qualifying round, with the away leg at Fir Park up first.

Meanwhile, St Patrick's Athletic, who got a bye to the second round, take on Slovenia's NS Mura in their opening leg at Richmond Park. Both games kick off at 7.45pm.

For ex-Saints midfielder Conan Byrne, the challenge of taking on a club that managed to shock Tottenham in last season's group stages, will be a tough assignement for Tim Clancy's team.

"Similarly to Shamrock Rovers' chances in Ludogorets, Mura are a good side," he told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.

We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

"Just looking at their recent form, they haven't kept a clean sheet in 14 games so their defence isn't particularly strong but they do score goals.

"So it's going to be a very interesting set-up to see how they get on. They beat Spurs in the Europa Conference League last year but they lost the other five games to Rennes and Vitesse Arnhem.

"Spurs didn't play a particulary strong side in those games in the Europa Conference League and they weren't in a great run of form in that time either."

St Pat's come into the game off the back of four points from six against the two Louth clubs, drawing with Dundalk in their most