Nov 08,2024
Stephen Bradley admitted he had been worried about how his players would bounce back from domestic heartache in time for Thursday's UEFA Conference League assignment against The New Saints but was delighted by their response during a 2-1 win over the Welsh side.
Tallaght Stadium had been despondent last Friday night as the Hoops fell short of winning a fifth SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division title in a row despite beating Waterford on the final day.
But their season is not over with the League Phase of the Conference League on the agenda between now and Christmas.
Rovers went into Thursday unbeaten from the first two games in the competition after a draw with Cyprus' APOEL and a win over reigning Northern Irish champions Larne in Belfast.
But since the 4-1 victory over the latter, the league had slipped from their grasp and Bradley was hopeful that the sense of disappointment would not permeate into Europe given what was at stake.
We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
"It's easy for us as staff to move on from the league because we're constantly assessing it and reflecting as we're going but for players, they're in the moment, they live in the moment," he said.
"So it's difficult for them to move on after Friday but I thought they did that really well. It was a little bit of a worry tonight if I'm being honest.
"But I knew after the first five minutes that they were there - mentally and physically they were in a good place and they showed that again tonight."
The victory courtesy of first-half strikes from Johnny Kenny and Dylan Watts which wiped out the concession of an early TNS goal means Rovers are on seven points from a possible nine in the revamped six-game 'League Phase' of the Conference League.
Getting to the seven-point mark has been regarded as the tally that should be enough to secure progression to the play-off round.
But Bradley said his team are keen not to rest on their laurels with three games to spare despite boosting their odds of advancing.
"Before tonight, seven points was 97% to get you into the play-offs which is obviously really high, so hopefully that remains the case, we'll see after tonight," he said.
"But our aim is to try and get more points on the board and let's see where that can take us."
The Hoops do not return to competitive action again until after the international break when they face Rapid Vienna on 28 November.
In the meantime, the club have a friendly lined up against HJK Helsinki in Tallaght on the 21st, followed by a behind-closed-doors encounter with the Finns the following day - fixtures that Bradley sees as crucial for setting his side up for the trip to Vienna and subsequent 'League Phase' games against Borac Banja Luka and Premier League giants Chelsea.
"It's important after tonight that the players get time off because the way the season is going to pan out, we're not going to get a lot of time off at the end of the season, so we've got to give it within the games as much as possible," he said.
"So the players will shut down now for a few days, they'll switch off, enjoy their time away and then we're back, we get ready for HJK and then build up to Vienna and that's going to be the process going forward."
The future of striker Kenny has been the subject of interest with Rovers keen to keep the Sligo native at the club beyond the end of his loan spell from Celtics.
His current manager admitted it was a wait-and-see to see how Kenny's situation develops.
"We have a brilliant relationship with Celtic at all levels and our feelings are quite clear on that," said Bradley.
"But we've also got to respect that Celtic are the ones that Johnny's contracted to and they control it and whatever they decide goes.
"But like I said, I think everyone recognises that Shamrock Rovers have been good for Johnny and he's been brilliant for us, so I'd like to continue that."
