Rovers and Noonan Rock in Norway
The journey continues for Shamrock Rovers Football Club as they secured yet another famous European victory on Thursday night in Norway.
Stephen Bradley’s side’s brilliant campaign in Europe continued and a packed house is expected in Tallaght Stadium next Thursday night for the second leg play-off.
“We are obviously happy winning away,” said Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley after the win in Molde.
“It was hard, and we have to be very careful. It’s only the first leg and we have them next week and we have a big game Sunday.
“We enjoy these moments. As soon as we get back on the plane, our full focus is on Bohs and that is the realities.
“You are never quite sure in pre-season where the players are. I thought for our first game away from home at this level that we were excellent.
“I thought they really switched on in every aspect and in the end, we controlled it,” said Bradley.
And while Rovers are on a high after last night’s result, they must focus on their opening league game this Sunday in the Aviva Stadium when they square up to Dublin rivals Bohemians with over 30,000 expected at the match.
They will then turn their attention to next Thursday in Tallaght and a result here would see the Hoops secure a place in the Conference League last 16 after their 1-0 win over Molde.
Last night belonged to former St Patrick’s Athletic player Michael Noonan as he broke Romelu Lukaku’s record of youngest goalscorer in a European competition at 16 years and 197 days old.
What a way to score his debut goal for Rovers with the 16-year-old, who was back in school today, creating his own bit of history against 10-man Molde.
The home side were reduced to 10 men when Valdemar Lund was shown red after taking down Noonan in what was a key moment in the game.
Noonan, who made a big impression on the night, was named in the starting line-up and linked upfront with Danny Mandriou while Danny Grant, Matt Healy and keeper Ed McGinty also made their debuts.
The best chances of the first half fell to Roberto Lopes when his shot was just wide of the post after an initial knock down from Daniel Cleary.
Noonan grabbed his goal in the second half after good pressure from Dylan Watts who put him through to send making no mistake to send the 200 Rovers fans into wild celebrations.
Chances after that were hard to come by with Kilnamanagh’s Aaron Greene and Graham Burke coming off the bench to steady the ship.
Greene did have a chance of a second goal after linking up with Burke, but his effort was blocked out.
However, Rovers held out to record another big night in Europe and another big seven days for the Tallaght club.
