On Friday night, Dundee will be facing a side full of confidence, scoring goals and with European experience under their belts this season.
The New Saints have been Welsh champions in 13 of the last 18 seasons and won the league and cup double last term.
They may be largely unknown to fans of the Dark Blues and supporters across Scotland.
However, Craig Harrison’s side are bang in form and will fancy upsetting their Scottish Championship visitors.
Used to winning
TNS have earned a habit of winning, not just in recent years, but stretching through much of this century.
Only twice have they finished outside the top two in the Welsh top flight, now the Cymru Premier, since 2000.
Last season they won the title by 21 points, winning 25 of their 32 league games.
And this campaign they have continued in that vein.
After drawing their opening fixture, TNS have won five matches on the bounce with only one goal conceded.
Their last outing saw them thrash Cardiff Metropolitan University 7-0 away from home putting them four points clear.
The only defeats for TNS this season have come away in European football.
Home form
Their 2,000 capacity Park Hall has not seen an away win yet this season either.
That includes a Champions League qualifier against Linfield where the Welsh outfit won 1-0 and their Europa Conference League tie against Vikingur that finished 0-0.
Both two-legged ties ended in defeat but last season they won all three of their home European legs.
TNS defeated Glentoran 2-0, Kauno Zalgiris 5-1 and Viktoria Plzen 4-2 in the Conference League.
Plzen would defeat them on penalties in the second leg after drawing 5-5 on aggregate.
The Czech side have this season qualified for the Champions League group stage where they have been drawn against Barcelona, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich.
TNS lost only one home match in the entirety of last season.
Squad
TNS’s top scorer this season is well known to fans of the Scottish lower leagues and to Dundee fans.
Declan McManus made the switch from Dunfermline last summer for £60,000.
He has five goals to his name this term, including a brace at the weekend.
Also among the goals are Ryan Brobbel (4) and Adrian Cieslewicz (3).
Twenty-nine-year-old Brobbel is a former Northern Ireland U/21 international while Cieslewicz started his career with Manchester City.
The Pole has since played for Wrexham, Kidderminster and B36 Torshavn in the Faroe Islands.
Midfielder Jon Routledge has had four separate spells with Hamilton Accies in the Scottish Premiership and spent the 2015/16 season in the Championship with Dumbarton before joining TNS.
Daniel Redmond, too, spent four years at New Douglas Park in the top flight.
Record against Scottish sides
This is not TNS’s first entry into the Scottish Challenge Cup.
In their four seasons in the competition, they have registered wins over Livingston, Elgin City and Forfar Athletic.
That’s as well as penalty successes against Livi again and Queen of the South on their way to the semi-finals in 2017/18.
They have been knocked out by Stenhousemuir and Queen’s Park on penalties as well as Dumbarton in that final four clash and St Mirren on their first attempt in 2017.
Dundee, meanwhile, lost to Elgin City at home in their last Challenge Cup campaign but are two-time winners of the competition.
Conversation