Kerry Mayo is hoping the green grass of Athlone can help Albion round off their Irish tour in style tonight.

The Seagulls head here to County Westmeath to take on a home side who last season finished mid-table in Ireland's first division, which is actually the second tier of their league structure.

Mayo has started both Albion's tour games to date, on rugby pitches on Longford and Galway.

So he will hope to get a run on what looks a better surface at Athlone's St Mel's Park.

He admitted: "It's a different way of life out here.

"The style of football is different but we've been playing on rugby pitches and you cannot get the ball down and play football like the gaffer wants.

"The Irish teams are really keen to impress when a professional English club comes over, but, by the same token, we are all keen to impress the gaffer as well".

Athlone are the oldest club in Ireland's 26 counties and St Mel's could have come straight out of the Ryman League.

It's a ground with few luxuries but lots of history. Back in 1975, AC Milan drew here 0-0 in the UEFA Cup before winning the second leg with three goals in the last 20 minutes at San Siro.

It could have been even better for Athlone, but John Minnock had a penalty saved in the home tie.

The locals also remember a youthful Roy Keane playing here for Cobh Ramblers and Gerry Ryan doing his stuff for Bohemians.

Groundsman John West took a look across the arena yesterday and said: "You won't see a better pitch than this anywhere".

In fact it's not that good, with its gentle undulations sure to cause a few mis-kicks tonight, but it looks better than what Albion have sampled here so far.

Whether they can go one better than Milan remains to be seen.

One Athlone fan told me: "There were 12,000 people here that night and I think Milan were a bit intimidated."

Only an Irishman could come up with a theory like that and still keep a straight face.