ANDY O'Brien is hoping that another prolonged UEFA Cup campaign will finally banish the memories of last season's Champions League exit.

More than a year has passed since the Magpies crashed out of Europe's premier club competition after a shock penalty shoot-out defeat to Serbian side Partizan Belgrade.

But the club's players have not been allowed to forget their surprise exit, with their subsequent UEFA Cup run constantly being devalued because of the way the Magpies dropped into the competition.

Despite coming to within 90 minutes of their first European final in 35 years, Newcastle's UEFA Cup exploits were generally seen as a poor imitation of what Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea were enjoying in the Champions League.

The club's latest continental campaign gets under way with a home tie against Israel's Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin tonight but, while the UEFA Cup is again the limit of Newcastle's ambitions, O'Brien hopes that more success will mean the Partizan defeat can be forgotten once and for all.

"I think the club has been reminded of the Partizan game far too often," said the Republic of Ireland international.

"Every time we went out of the FA Cup or the League Cup last season, it was brought back to that day.

"It was an unfortunate night for us, but a year has passed since that game now.

"We've got to forget about it. Some of the players here have been fortunate enough to play in the Champions League and, with the experience we picked up from the UEFA Cup last year, we're ready to go one better this time round.

"You work hard during the season to try to get into European competition and it's important we don't let all of that hard work go to waste."

O'Brien had better get used to Israeli opposition because, as well as the two-legged tie with Sakhnin, he is also likely to feature in the Republic of Ireland's two World Cup qualifiers against the Israeli national side.

The centre-half won his 12th international cap as Brian Kerr's side drew 1-1 in Switzerland earlier this month and is confident the Magpies will reap the benefits of his increased experience during their forthcoming European campaign.

"International football and European football are different to the games we're playing in the league," said O'Brien.

"International football tends to be a lot lower key, especially in the final third as a defender.

"But we know our objective is to get as good a result as possible and we know a clean sheet is very important with regard to the away-goal rule.

"Regardless of the opposition, we know we need to work hard to get the right result."

O'Brien could have an influence at both ends this evening, as two goals in two games have made the defender Newcastle's joint top scorer this season.

His deft touch and turn in the box left Dominic Matteo all at sea on Saturday but, despite already beating his scoring tally for the whole of last season, the 25-year-old is more concerned about his defensive duties.

"It makes a change for me to score goals like that," said O'Brien. "Obviously it's nice to get a goal, but I thought that the clean sheet we kept on Saturday was more important.

"It was our first of the season and, hopefully, we can build on that."

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