Mark Coyle admits Shelbourne has eyes on Euro prize ahead of trip to Derry City

​The 26 year-old Burt man has never played in Europe and doesn't need any extra motivation when it comes to facing Derry given his experience in the north west derby rivalry during his time with Finn Harps.

He also admits Shelbourne's FAI Cup Final humiliation at the hands of the Candy Stripes last year has provided an added 'driving force' when it comes to games against Ruaidhri Higgins' troops this season. And so the gloves are off when the teams meet for a fourth time this term.

Damien Duff's men are well poised for securing European football and fourth could prove enough depending on who wins the FAI Cup. However, Shels, currently in fifth spot, won't want to leave anything to chance.

Ahead of next Friday's trip to Foyleside, Shels know victory would take them to within two points of Derry with two games remaining against UCD and Drogheda.

The Tolka Park men have set their target high with second or third spot still very much achievable and Coyle is up for the challenge.

"Results have to go our way too in terms of getting there," said Coyle. "We have to do what we have to do but I'd be lying if I said we didn't have that conversation because we have.

"If you don't have those ambitions then you won't get there anyway so you might as well have those ambitions.

"I'm not saying we're going to do it but we definitely have that ambition and we'll do whatever we can to get there.

"Obviously next week at Brandywell is a massive part of that so we plan to go up there to give a good account of ourselves and make sure it's a tough game for them and one hopefully we can come out on top in.

"Europe is something I've never experienced before so obviously something I'd love to do. We also know it's a huge task. You can't get too ahead of yourselves because if you lose sight of what you're actually looking for you end up getting slapped in the face and I suppose the FAI Cup Final taught us a bit of that too."

Shels will be hoping to take full advantage of Derry's latest slip-up against Drogheda which all but ended their hopes of catching Shamrock Rovers and Coyle, who always seems to raise his game against the Brandywell men, certainly won't have any sympathy.

"We didn't represent ourselves at all that day of the cup final and it definitely was a disappointment which will stick with us as a team for a long time.

"You obviously have that bit of extra motivation to put it right.

"Every week it's a tough challenge and you can see that throughout the league teams are beating everybody. Derry and the other bigger teams you gave to raise your game because of the quality.

"I try to do the same every week but obviously coming from Donegal you obviously get that extra motivation as it's the neighbours, especially when you're close to home and people from home are there maybe so it gives you an extra driving force. "Maybe it's subconscious rather than conscious," he laughed.