Bangor surprise on the menu for Powell

A member of the Bangor City FC side which shocked Fredrikstad FK of Norway in the first round of the 1985/86 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Citizens' manager Neville Powell is targeting another Nordic surprise against FC Honka Espoo at the Racecourse in Wrexham on Thursday.

Striking early
"If we score first it'll give us the impetus to go on but if they do we'd have to score four on the night," said Powell, whose charges went down 2-0 in Finland in the first leg of the teams' UEFA Europa League second qualifying round tie. "We probably deserved an away goal last week; we had three or four chances but you've got to take them. We were also missing players like forward Leslie Davies. He's a 24-year-old giant and I don't think their young lads would have fancied coming up against him. He's just had keyhole surgery on his knee but he might be fit enough to play some part on Thursday."

Lessons learned
Having led his side to victory in the last two editions of the Welsh Cup, Powell is well versed in the nuances of knockout competitions. He also assured uefa.com that his team have moved on since the 10-1 aggregate defeat by Danish outfit FC Midtjylland in last season's UEFA Cup first qualifying round. "Midtjylland were a class apart and we've learned from that. Honka's team was littered with Under-21 internationals and a couple of senior Finnish internationals, but they knew they'd been in a game and they will this Thursday too. We'll have 1,500 to 2,000 Bangor fans behind us and though the odds are stacked in their favour we'll be aiming to cause an upset.

'Extra special'
"We're not expected to win so we'll be going out there to enjoy ourselves. It's a Europa League game which makes it extra special: there are a lot of full-time players that never get the chance to play in this competition. There were some strange results last week and there'll be some shocks on Thursday – let's hope one of them is at Bangor City."

European memories
As a member of the aforementioned 1985/86 team, which edged out Fredrikstad on away goals before exiting at the hands of Spanish giants Club Atlético de Madrid, Powell can draw on vivid memories of that campaign to motivate his players. "Atlético were one of the world's top sides, so to face them at Bangor was a bit surreal. They scored two quick goals in the opening 15 minutes and we feared the worst. But as the game went on, the crowd got behind us, we took the game to them and in the second half we really had them on the ropes. To be back as manager of the same club nearly 25 years later and to have taken them into Europe twice is something special."