The squad may be much the same, but the build-up to Bohemians' first European outing of the season could hardly have been more different than to matches when the previous manager, Roddy Collins, was in charge.
New manager Pete Mahon maintained a decidedly low profile as his side's Estonian opponents arrived in town for this evening's Champions League qualifier at Dalymount Park.
Mahon stuck with the practice established by Collins of gathering the club's players at a north Dublin hotel as they completed their preparations for the match, but there was little bluster from the new man as he considered his side's prospects against largely unknown opponents.
Instead, the long-time St Francis boss was quietly cautious about the task facing his players tonight, admitting that in the absence of any real insight into how the visitors will play, it is simply up to the home side to do what they do well.
"We have a video of them and we'll be sitting down to watch that together this evening, but from what I've seen of them so far they're a good passing side, technically impressive, the usual story," said Mahon yesterday.
"When I've had a closer look at the tape I'll make a final decision on the starting line-up, but the bottom line is that, as the home team, the onus is on us to try to win the game and that is what we will do ... but without being reckless about it."
Mahon said he was toying with the idea of playing three up front, even though his options in that department are limited somewhat by the fact that Trevor Molloy is serving match two of a three-match suspension picked up as a result of his having been sent off against Kaiserslautern last year.
On the plus side, though, Alex Nesovic, Shaun Maher and Kevin Hunt all came through yesterday morning's training session at ALSAA without any difficulties despite suffering from hamstring, ankle and hamstring problems respectively over the past few days.
"We'll wait until tomorrow morning to see whether any of them have had a reaction, but so far the signs are all very good," remarked Mahon.
"Before today's session, Kevin, for one, was definitely out as far as I was concerned, but he looked fine and if he does play it would be a great boost for the whole team."
Levadia's coach Valeri Bondarenko, meanwhile, is without his experienced central defender Igor Prins. The 34-year-old former international is suspended. There are also a couple of minor injury doubts.
The team's other prominent players are all expected to start with the central midfield partnership of Indro Olumets and Sergei Bragin likely to play a key role.
Toomas Krom, the league's top scorer for each of the last two seasons, is likely to be the main threat up front, although Bragin is also a consistent scorer of goals. All three are Estonian internationals at a club which was formed only three years ago. It entered the top flight of the national league a year later has since won two league and cup doubles.
Our own double winners may start the tie as slight favourites, but with Levadia a third of the way through their season and therefore much more match fit there is nothing at all to suggest that the next eight days will be easy for Mahon or his men.
