Stephen Bradley will be hoping his side get the right result in Gibraltar on Thursday evening.
Photo by George Kelly
Bradley’s boys begin European adventure
Shamrock Rovers travel to Gibraltar to take on St Joseph’s on Thursday evening in the second round of the UEFA Conference League.
Rovers will be hoping to replicate their success from last year where they made not only the group stages of the competition but qualified for a knockout round against Molde FC coming up short on penalties
Stephen Bradley spoke in preparation for the game and even gained some information from Cliftonville who lost to St Josephs in the first round last week.
“Yeah, Gerard Lyttle [Cliftonville Assistant Manager] has sent me all of the stuff they had on St Joseph’s, all their analysis of everything that they’ve done, which is good.
‘Obviously it helps, and we’ve obviously done our own work as well.
‘We don’t get a lot on them because they’re not on any platforms. It was down to the two legs, it’s a very rare chance to do that, so we did that, which is good.It gave you a real feel for everything. We have all the information.”
The game against Cliftonville for St Josephs was marred with controversy after a debatable sending off in the second leg.
St Josephs would go on to score two goals after the red card, ensuring their spot in the next round. Bradley was present at the match.
“The sending off in both legs changed the game. I think, especially up in Cliftonville.
‘Cliftonville were right in the ascendancy and then the sending off completely changed the rhythm of the game.
‘It was never a sending off. Then they came more into it, Cliftonville still at the post at the last minute. The keeper made a great save.
Bradley spoke on the aims of Rovers this year in Europe.
“We want to go again, like we did last year. I think it’s two out of three years, we’ve been in the group or league phase.
‘We want to try and go again, regardless of what’s been done in the past. That’s irrelevant to us. We face what’s in front of us. What’s in front of us is St Joseph’s on Thursday night.
“We’ve got to take care of the business of the two legs and then we’ll face what comes after that. Our aim is to be in that league phase again.
‘I believe we can do it. We have to be at our best to do it. The squad’s in a good place. We always get better in the second part of the season.
‘It’s up to us to go and do it. We want to do it. We want to be there again. We want another taste of that. How we went out still doesn’t sit right with me. We want to try and get back and put that right. That starts tomorrow night. We’re really looking forward to it.”
Rovers were consistently trying to top the table in the league last year while simultaneously playing in Europe. Bradley touched on differences now that his side are comfortable at the head of the table.
“It definitely helps. Yeah, it definitely helps that. Last year, as we all said a million times, we knew we were off our levels and that definitely does play into how you perform in Europe and it plays into the mindset.
“So where we are domestically right now, we’re in a good place. So it definitely does free the mind up a little bit and allows us to attack these two games.
“And again, you look at the squad with no injuries at the end of July, it’s in a really good place.
‘But again we’ve been around long enough to understand that if we go over here tomorrow and don’t show up it’s irrelevant, where you think you are, you’ve got to do your work and let’s see where it takes us.
“We know where we want to end up but let’s see where it takes us.
Bradley’s men will take on St Josephs tonight, 24 of July with the second leg in Tallaght the following Thursday 31 July.
