European trips are career highlights and Crusaders want to progress through in Conference League, says defender Jarlath O'Rourke

The Irish Cup holders are away from home in the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League as they lock horns with a side who finished 4th in last season’s Finnish top flight and qualified for the competition through an end-of-season play-off.

Haka are currently mid-season and sit in the bottom half of the table having played 15 games in the Finnish Veikkausliiga.

Despite knowing their opposition are not in the best of form, ex-Dungannon Swifts full-back O’Rourke insisted the Crues can’t afford to read too much into that.

"We know Haka haven’t started the season as they would have liked and they’ve seemingly lost a few key players from last season,” he said.

"However, due to the fact they are mid-season, they will be fit and technically very good.

"We have watched a few of their clips but we are relatively going into the unknown as we don’t know too much about them.

"I think we will plan to keep things tight over there and hope to use our good home record at Seaview to our advantage in the second leg.

"European trips are always remembered, they help players to gel together but we have a job to do.”

O’Rourke netted on his first competitive start of the season as Stephen Baxter’s men retained their Charity Shield crown with a 2-0 win against Larne at Inver Park.

James Teelan would also score in that success and the 28-year-old believes the timing of the fixture will give both clubs ideal preparation for their European exploits.

"It is always nice to score as I don’t get too many,” he laughed.

"I missed one in the first-half that I probably should have scored and I got a bit of stick about that at half-time, so it was nice to put that right and I owe Lloyd Anderson a lot for his great cross for the goal.

"I thought we played very well against Larne especially considering the fact they had played a few pre-season games prior to the Charity Shield final.

"We got what we wanted out of the game and it was a tough game but worthwhile for both clubs in terms of preparation for Europe.”

The north Belfast side have been busy adding to their squad in the summer transfer window as Jordan Williamson, Mal Smith, Jimmy Callacher, Teelan, Anderson and Mikhail Kennedy have all been snapped up by Baxter so far.

O’Rourke believes those acquisitions will provide plenty of competition for places in the starting eleven on all fronts this season.

"The squad depth and fighting for your position is what you want,” he continued.

"It is a long season and there are always injuries and suspensions which tests the depth of your squad.

"Our signings have all fitted in well and will provide us with quality options which will benefit us.

"I’m sure we will need some squad rotation throughout the campaign so it’s great to have those options.”