So the countdown is well and truly on to the Glentoran games. However having played sides from fifteen different leagues around Europe since our first UEFA game against Sporting Lisbon in the European Cup of 1962/63, this is the first time we'll be playing a side from the Irish League in a European game.

For Glentoran, it'll be their second venture south for a European tie. In the European Cup of 1970/71 the Glens played Waterford in the first ever north-south UEFA tie. For the Glens though the tie was to end in disappointment. Waterford won 1-0 at home and 3-1 in Belfast. Waterford then went out in the next round after a crushing 10-3 defeat to the previous season's finalists, Celtic.

It was nine years later before the next LoI-IL European meeting. The Dundalk-Linfield European Cup preliminary round meeting of 1979 was to go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Linfield got out of Oriel Park with a 1-1 draw but there was so much violence in and outside the ground that the return leg took place in the Dutch town of Haarlem. Dundalk won 2-0 and then knocked out Hibs of Malta before losing 3-2 to Celtic in the second round.

And the third and last north-south clash in 1984 saw the tables turned as Linfield registered the first IL win over a LoI side in Europe. They put out Shamrock Rovers on away goals after a 0-0 draw in Windsor Park and a 1-1 draw in Milltown. For Rovers it was the start of a disasterous run of results in Europe as their four-in-a-row side fell at the first hurdle every time.