Stephen Bradely will be looking to for his team to turn the tie around when they host Floriana in Tallaght
Bradley calls for improved performance after Floriana defeat
SHAMROCK Rovers suffered a 2-0 loss to Floriana last Tuesday in Malta in the first round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.
They now look towards the second leg this coming Tuesday which will be held in Tallaght Stadium for an 8pm start.
The loss could present a pitfall for their plans of Europa League qualification as a defeat will move them two tiers below down to the Conference League.
Stephen Bradley’s 10 year anniversary since taking over as boss did not go as planned as Rovers conceded just before half time as well as ten minutes before the final whistle in the game.
One blow was midfield lynchpin Matt Healy being sent off after a moment of madness.
The Corkman picked up two yellow cards in the space of a minute to leave Rovers a man down for the majority of the second half.
Despite the scoreline, Rovers appeared to be the better team on several occasions with multiple dominant spells throughout the match.
Possession does not win games however and Bradley’s men will find themselves with a 2-0 deficit heading into the second leg.
Stephen Bradley spoke on the result following the game.
“I thought we were poor, I thought we were sloppy in every regard, Sometimes you can get lulled into a false sense of security.
‘Because we had so much control, we became sloppy. You can’t do that in any game, especially in Europe.”
“We know we’ve got to be better than that and we weren’t and we got punished. If we want to have a chance at going through, we’re going to have to produce a better performance. It’s half-time now and we know we can perform a lot better.”
Bradley also touched on the impact of the dismissal in the game.
“He’s made two poor decisions very quickly and got sent off but there was a lot more than that that was off. There’s no excuses.
‘Maybe we got a bit complacent. You can get lulled into a false sense of security from having so much control. We created a lot of chances and know that we can play a lot better next week – because we’ll have to.”
