When Stephen Kenny took over at Dundalk for the 2013 season, they had just come off the back of staving off relegation via a playoff against Waterford United.
Kenny had recently been sacked by Shamrock Rovers in September 2012.
But he and Dundalk clicked straight away and it's culminated in a rollercoaster ride to the brink of the Champions League group stages.
After a surprise second place finish in 2013, Kenny's Lilywhites built on that success with a title win in 2014, retention in 2015 with the added bonus of an FAI Cup win and now this!
Beating BATE Borisov is up there among the greatest results in Irish club football history and a Europa League group stage spot is guaranteed if the Champions League playoff round proves too difficult.
Prior to his spell at Dundalk, the manager had already led Bohemians to the title in 2003, Derry City to an FAI Cup and four League Cups and he had taken his coaching career abroad at Scotland's Dunfermline, leading them to the Scottish Challenge Cup Final in 2007.
His burgeoning reputation has seen praise come his way, especially after Tuesday night, and last September, Paddy Mulligan felt Kenny wouldn't be out of place as a viable candidate in the future if the Ireland job was to crop up.
He told Oisin Langan on the Rewind that, "I think if you're good enough, it doesn't matter whether you manage in the League of Ireland or in the English First Division. If you know how to set up teams, if you know your players, you've got a wonderful chance and Stephen Kenny does an awful lot of homework from what I've seen of the teams he manages."
Given that ex-Shamrock Rovers Michael O'Neill has worked wonders with Northern Ireland by getting them to Euro 2016 and then making the knockout stages for the first time, the League of Ireland can prove to be a good grounding based on that experience.
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