“Building a team to win the league will not happen overnight”- Bradley

STEPHEN Bradley has reiterated that his objectives for Shamrock Rovers are long-term.

While the Hoops manager is adamant he wants his side to be as competitive as possible this season, he insists that making them the Number One team in the country is not something that can realistically happen overnight.

The Tallaght side currently sits sixth in the Premier Division table, 15 points adrift of leaders Cork City, but Bradley is not overly concerned by this disparity.

“Our aims haven’t change” he stressed.

“I said this at the start of the season, that Cork have been building a team to win the league for the past four years. We’ve been building a team for the past four months.

“We want to build a team that will win the league on a regular basis, not just for one season, but that doesn’t happen overnight.

“Even Derry have been building a team for the past three years, so we’re far behind other teams in building a team to win the league. There’s no magical fix.”

Rovers will be pushing for another batch off points when they take on the in-form Bray Wanderers away tomorrow night (Friday)

Having edged out Sligo Rovers 1-0 in the league in Friday night and beaten arch rivals Bohemians for the second time this season when they met in the EA Sports Cup three days later, the Hoops will be heading to the Carlisle Ground in confident mood.

Yet they will be up against a Bray outfit that has gone joint second in the table with defending champions Dundalk whom they beat last week.

Still Bradley insists his side will approach this challenge in the same way they always have under his management.

“We won’t change our style for any team. We did that once- against Drogheda away- and we didn’t play at all.

“We’ll go there [to Bray] and try to impose our style on them while, at the same time, respecting them and how well they’ve been doing.”

While Rovers may be accused of lacking goals so far this season, Bradley insists his players are well capable of rectifying that.

“I’m not worried at all. We’re creating a lot of chances and I think there are teams there who would be crying out to be able to create those chances.

“We’re creating four or five good chances in each game. Can we be putting more of them away? Of course we can, but I’d be a lot more worried if we weren’t creating those opportunities in the first place” he added.