Mark O’Hara is looking to banish the ‘regret’ of his last foray into Europe when St Mirren take on Valur in Iceland on Thursday.
The Buddies Captain was in Stephen Robinson’s Motherwell side that lost 3-0 in Israel to Hapoel Beer-Sheva back in 2020, a result which saw them dumped out of the Europa League qualifiers.
The 28-year old admits that he has taken lessons from that previous defeat:
“There’s probably a bit of regret from before when I went to Israel with Motherwell, I think we maybe didn’t have that belief that we could get a result but it’s a learning curve for myself that we need to believe that we can go and beat these teams.”
Mark O’Hara and Josue Pesqueira in action during the UEFA Europa League 3rd Round qualifier between Happoel Beer Sheeva and Motherwell at HaMoshava Stadium
Competing in their first UEFA competition since 1987, O’Hara says that this St Mirren squad must grasp the opportunity to write themselves into the history books of the Paisley outfit.
He added: “It’s a real chance for us to put our names on the map. Growing up you want to play in European competitions and I think the excitement of the staff and fans and everyone around the club shows this is where we want to be.
“It’s our chance to put ourselves up on the walls here.”
If they were to overcome their Icelandic opposition, St Mirren will be rewarded with a either a trip to The Netherlands to face Go Ahead Eagles or Norway, where they would face SK Brann.
The Captain was eager to stress that he and his teammates wouldn’t be getting ahead of themselves however as he pointed out the challenge that faces them in Reykjavík on Thursday.
“Obviously the draw has been done but within the group there’s a real focus and the manager has reiterated that we can’t get too ahead of ourselves.” O’Hara said. “We’ve done a lot of studying this week and we’re aware that we’re going into a very tough tie. We need to remain focussed on the next two Thursdays.
“You look at the players they’ve got in their team, they’ve got players that have played at the top level. They’re a very technical team…we’re under no illusions it’s going to be very tough game. We’re going to need to be at the top of our game to get anything from it.”
