Heat on the New Saints in Champions League

The Welsh Premier champions visit Slovakian high-flyers SK Slovan Bratislava tomorrow night, with Darlington has just returned from a spying mission.

He watched Slovan defeat rivals Kosice 1-0 to lift the Slovan Super Cup in their season opener and knows TNS will need to keep their cool in the first leg.

He witnessed temperatures of around 30 degrees celcius during his trip to the Stadion Pasienky, saying: "Our main concern is gong to be the heat and humidity over there.

"We like to play on the front foot, so playing in that kind of heat will make it difficult for us to do that. Changing our style of play is definitely something we have to look at.

"It was 29 degrees on the first day there and 31 the next, the air is very tight and you get a sweat on just walking.

"But this is European football and is something we have to deal with when we play out there."

Despite the hot temperatures, Darlington believes the Saints will warm to the occasion after making their mark on the European stage in recent seasons.

They have put in creditable displays against Belgium giants Anderlecht and Polish top dogs Legia Warsaw.

Darlington said: "We acquitted ourselves well last season against Legia Warsaw who, with no disrespect, we feel are a better side than Slovan Bratislava.

"We have been close to winning a lot of our games in Europe, it's been a fine line, so we now have to take that next step and turn those performances into positive results."

The Saints have only once before progressed past the first hurdle of the Champions League when winning 4-0 against Bohemians at Park Hall four years ago, under Darlington and then-manager Mike Davies.

Currently out of season, the Oswestry side have been training rigorously for six weeks, and have won all four of their pre-Europe friendlies.

The team trained on Saturday and yesterday and flew to Slovakia this morning, with a session at the Stadion Pasienky planned tonight.