So, we're almost ready to go again. For the eleventh season in a row we're in a European competition. And for the fourth time in six years we're in the biggie. The CL. And no longer is just being in the draw good enough. Five years ago, we were drawn against Sloga, and after p**rick's 10-0 humiliation the previous year, a decent performance was required. And the LoI doubters were put in place as we got the first away win in Europe by an Irish side in twenty years, but Rosenborg showed us how far we still had to go. Fast forward four years and a combination of summer football and full-time professionalism gave us the edge late on in ties against K.R. Reykjavik and Hadjuk Split. By the time our home leg with Deportivo ended, there was almost an air of disappointment. Seeing the previous season's semi-finalists trying to run out the clock meant we'd missed our chance to take a lead to Spain. That was how surreal things had become. In the space of three weeks we'd gone from wildly celebrating a 0-0 draw with an Icelandic side to rueing the missed opportunities in a 0-0 with a top Primera Liga side.

And the big question is, was it all a fluke? Can we do it again? Well, our comeback in the UEFA Cup against Lille would suggest that it wasn't. Even after the CL bandwagon (and its' jumpers) had departed, we were still able to pull it out of the bag. And despite being comprehensively outplayed by the French, we nearly won it with Glen Fitz almost completing a hat-trick of headers.

Onto this year and who can we draw? Who do we want to avoid? Who do we want? And why? Well, there are twelve sides in the unseeded side of the first round draw. The top unseeded side are Rabotnicki Skopje of Macedonia who was victims of UEFA’s decision to allow a fifth English team compete in this season’s tournament. While we did win in Skopje four years ago (something the national team can only dream of doing), it would no doubt be a tough tie with the away leg being played in quite warm conditions.

The second highest unseeded side are Belarusian champions Dinamo Minsk and with them also competing in a summer season like ourselves and their proximity to Chernobyl, I'd rather we give them a miss. We could also draw Glentoran, but with a potential tie against them assuming local derby status, and considering what happened to us against Linfield, we could leave them until next season's Setanta Cup. Then there's the fourth highest unseeded side, Pyunik Yerevan of Armenia. An awkward place to travel to, and a high co-efficient for an unseeded side. Another side I wouldn’t mind us missing. After that there doesn't seem to be a lot in the draw.

The third highest unseeded side is Sliema Wanderers. And one word, and one word only springs to mind. Revenge. Then there's SK Tirana (where it'll be hot in July) and Bohs' conquerors of last season Levadia Tallinn. There's also Welsh side TNS and F91 Dudelange of Luxembourg, teams that we should be looking to beat home and away, and draws that would be the most attractive from a supporter's point of view. And finally there's expensive trips to the Faroes, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the latter being six hours ahead of GMT and their champions playing about 300 km from China!!!

And if we get through to the second round, who'll be there waiting? Norwegian runners-up Vålerengen, former European Champions Steaua Bucuresti , Turkish runners-up Trabzonspor, Hungarian champions Debrecen, CSKA Sofia, Brøndby and Rapid Wien are all in the bottom half of the seeded side. The top sides, and the ones we want to avoid playing are Liverpool, Celtic, Anderlecht, Lokomotiv Moscow, Partizan Belgrade, Dinamo Kiev, and Maccabi Haifa.

A couple of things to remember though. We won in the first qualifying round in 2000 and 2004 as the unseeded side. We lost as the seeded side in 2002. And if we can turn over a side like Hajduk, the unseeded sides will believe that they have a chance at beating us. Still...bring it on!!!!!