Originally Posted by
JC_GUFC
I think they won the fair play league in Sweden last season and got a place in the UEFA Cup even though they were relegated!
As for being cocky about Derry qualifying, if you look at the results of eL clubs in the CL over the past few years
00/01 Shels 2 Sloga Jugomagnat 1 AGG
01/02 Bohs 3 Levadia Maardu 3-0 AGG
02/03 Shels 2 Hibernian 3 AGG
03/04 Bohs 3 BATE Borisov 1 AGG
04/05 Shels 2 KR Rekjavik 2 AGG (Shels on Away Goals)
05/06 Shels 6 Glentoran 2 AGG
06/07 Cork 2 Apollon Limassol 1 AGG
Most of the teams Irish clubs have played have been near to the top of the non-seeds (Shels were unseeded in 2000).
Derry would beat any of the bottom half of the unseeded teams, even playing as poorly as they are, and should be able to beat the rest of the teams, though drawing Linfield would probably be the worst, other than maybe drawing the Armenians, Azeris or Kazakhs.
As the draw for the second round is also on Friday I don't think there's a problem hoping they get as kind a draw as possible there giving them a chance of making the 3rd qualifying round and a shot at the UEFA Cup 1st round.
Maybe Linfield's attitude is that you'll lose in the 1st round so the second round draw doesn't matter...