All eyes on Rovers trip to Stamford Bridge

SHAMROCK Rovers ultras displayed banners hailing Stephen Bradley for his contribution to the club prior to Thursday night’s fixture, reports James Ffrench.

Bradley repaid their thanks with an impressive performance and a 3-0 victory over the Bosnian champions, but you can’t help but feel the magnitude of what he and his side have achieved will not be fully appreciated until further down the line.

Much of the build up to the game was centred around reports of internal conflict at shareholder level behind the scenes and post-game Bradley remained bullish about how the club must build on this unprecedented success.

“Just keep seeing every year how we can improve”, Bradley replied when asked how Rovers can build on this European campaign.

“I think us as a team and a club need to keep moving the dial and wanting to get better.

“The small margins and the small details make all the difference at the level and when you standstill, clubs just bypass you and overtake you so we need to keep trying to improve on every aspect on the pitch, off the pitch, the training ground, type of player were recruiting, type of player were bringing through from the academy”, he added.

“We just need to keep moving the dial and getting better and that’s always been our mantra on that and will remain as clubs and teams around Europe are getting better and better, we need to stay on track.”

Johnny Kenny has been crucial in this European campaign and was once again on Thursday, scoring twice to bring him to five goals in the league phase, the most in the competition alongside two others.

The Celtic loanee’s future remains uncertain with reports the Scottish champions want him back in January.

His double also brings him to 20 now for the season, making him the first Rovers player to hit that mark since Gary Twigg did so over a decade ago.

“I felt last year when I sat down with Johnny about keeping him here, he was miles ahead of everyone else in the league in stats”, Bradley responded when asked about his striker’s development in Tallaght.

“The goals weren’t showing that but he was near, it was going to happen.”

“We just needed to calm him down and show him the stats and once we did that and it was clear, I think we’re seeing that this year is a reflection of his growth and maturity.”

“He has a really high ceiling, I do believe that, I think he can be a really, really top player- there’s still development in him, still loads to come and hopefully we’re the ones to help him get there.

“I have no doubt in the future that he’s going to have a really big career.”

A trip to North London is next for this Rovers side, a daunting task against the competition favourites, but one Stephen Bradley is looking forward to nonetheless.

“Its going to be difficult, they’re scoring goals for fun aren’t they, they’ve an incredible squad, probably the most in form team in Europe at the moment,” Bradley said.

“It’s going to be so difficult but its why you’re in the game, you want to go to these places and go with a gameplan and see what happens.”