Wayne to Buch the trend and lead Whites again
Saturday, April 26, 2008
By David Hunter
The Whites are off into Europe once more in what will be the last ever year
of UEFA's Intertoto Cup competition.
In June 2005 they took on FK Zalgiris Vilnius of Lithuania, this time it's
TPS Turku of Finland.
Paul Kirk's men have qualified for the competition three times in the last
five years, but only participated twice after they failed to get a UEFA
licence at their first attempt in 2005-2006.
The Zalgiris game is something that skipper Wayne Buchanan looks back on
fondly and he will be hoping to write his name into the annals of Lisburn
Distillery history by being the first player to lead them out in two
European campaigns.
Looking back he said: "I loved it, that was an ambition fulfilled and I
wanted to make sure that I was fit to lead the team out.
"Everybody just wanted to play and they wanted to avoid being injured
and they were all looking forward to that game.
"It has now happened again and I think that we deserve it after this
season; it's been a reward for all the hard work we put in. Even in the
second half of last season we went close on a lot of things so it will be
great to go to Finland and enjoy things."
TPS or more properly Turun Palloseura is not a familiar football name to
fans here, the Whites' skipper adding: "We are going out into the
unknown and sometimes that can be a good thing, you can relax slightly and
have a go if you need to.
"I think having the home leg first this time is good, we can maybe have
a go at them. Sometimes you can go away and then get a bit cautious and I
think that's what happened the last time (against Zalgiris) and in the
second leg we didn't have a real go as we should have done."
The ties are scheduled for the weekends of 21/22 June and 28/29 June (away)
but there is some good news on the training plans as the central defender
explained: "Last time we started training the last week in May but this
time the gaffer is giving us the whole of May off and the players have to
keep themselves right and then we report back at the beginning of June. It
is back early but at the same time we have worked hard for it and everybody
wants to experience it so I don't think the players will mind that and I
know that they will all keep themselves right for both games."
