The New Saints' European adventure is the highlight of skipper's career

Redmond is looking forward to captaining the JD Cymru Premier champions against Swedish club Djurgarden at Shrewsbury Town’s Croud Meadow tonight (5.45pm), writes Stuart Dunn.

It’s the Park Hall side’s fourth league phase fixture, with Saints currently standing 24th from the 36 teams through to this stage of the competition.

Redmond, who started his career at Wigan Athletic and joined TNS from Scottish club Hamilton Academical in 2018, said: “It’s definitely the highlight of my career, especially when we qualified, and you’re watching the draw and you see the likes of Fiorentina away come out first.

“And to be named captain, first season, it’s a very proud moment to be leading the lads out, and I’m going to cherish these moments for ever.”

Redmond and his team-mates enjoyed their first experience of playing at Shrewsbury, the club’s temporary European home, when Saints memorably beat Astana 2-0 last month.

“It was brilliant,” he said. "The pitch was very good quality. It’s a nice ground and it was nice to see the fans come out and support the lads, and to reward that with a 2-0 win for the first win in the Conference League.

“That was a very big moment for the club and I think the fans were happy on the night.”

Asked if he hopes for a bigger crowd tonight, Redmond responded: "I hope so. From the performances that we’ve had so far in the Conference League, I think we’ve done pretty well.

“For the Shrewsbury fans to come out and watch as well at their home ground, it was nice, and hopefully we put a smile on their face to bring some back.”

Saints took the lead in their last European match against Shamrock Rovers, but ultimately left Dublin empty-handed after the Irish side hit back to win 2-1 earlier this month.

“To take the lead, we always hope that we can hold on and try and nick another goal,” reflected Redmond. “But Shamrock, to be fair to them, are a very good side, they’re very strong, very physical, and they took their chances on the night.

“Obviously, we're disappointed, but we can’t go back on time. We just need to learn from the mistakes that we’ve made and hopefully rectify them going forward.”

Saints prepared up for tonight’s big game by retrieving a 2-0 half-time deficit to beat Penybont, the JD Cymru Premier leaders, 3-2 in Oswestry on Saturday.

The result saw them move to within a point of Penybont, with a game in hand, with Redmond scoring a fine late winner to complete the turnaround.

Redmond added: “You don’t want to be going into the big Europe games on the back of a defeat, and to be 2-0 down and to come back to win 3-2, I don’t think you get much better than that.

“It shows the team togetherness and the team spirit that we’ve got, and hopefully we can use that going into the games now.

“We’re expecting a tough test against a strong Swedish side and we need to be at our best to get anything from the game.”