Eirik Horneland expects St Mirren-SK Brann contest to be a clash of styles

Eirik Horneland expects a conflict of football styles when his SK Brann side take on St Mirren on Thursday night.

The Norwegian outfit arrived in Paisley on Wednesday ahead of the first leg of their UEFA Conference League third qualifier, after beating Dutch outfit Go Ahead Eagles 2-1 on aggregate in the previous round.

Horneland watched St Mirren hammer Icelandic outfit Valur 4-1 in the second leg of their UEFA Conference League qualifier last week before another convincing 3-0 William Hill Premiership win over Hibernian on Sunday, which left him believing two different football philosophies will clash at St Mirren’s home ground.

The SK Brann boss, who lost skipper Sivert Nilsen to Aberdeen last month, said: “This game will be a tough one.

“St Mirren have had two home matches so far this season and they have scored seven goals, that is a lot.

“Tomorrow will be two different styles of play so it will be interesting to see which style can get the game.

“St Mirren are a physical team, a very direct team and well-organised.

“We try to dominate the games with a passing game, we try to be a hard-pressing team, give away as little as we can for the opponent.

“On the ball we want to create, we want to make chances and be the best team – sometimes we are, sometimes we are not – we will wait and see if we can do it again.

“We certainly hope we can get our game going and St Mirren will be the same but it is two different styles of play and it will be interesting to see who can take the advantage.”

While St Mirren have played only one league game, SK Brann are second in the Eliteserien after 18 fixtures with a 3-2 victory away at Stromsgodset on Sunday.

Horneland said: “It should be an advantage but I watched St Mirren’s last games and they looked fresh, they looked mobilised and in a good shape but we will get to know each other in the next week so we will see.

“We are a little bit better. July was not the best month for us but the last two games were okay, a good win against Go Ahead at home and then a good away game against Stromsgodset in the league.

“European football is very important. It is not the big part of the history but we want it to be a big part of Brann because we see Norwegian teams who regularly take part in Europe have an advantage because they grow our clubs extremely fast, so we want to do that as well.”