Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley was dissappointed with his sides’ performance in Kosovo
Rovers suffer first defeat in Euro campaign
SHAMROCK Rovers suffered the first defeat of their European campaign last Thursday after an unfortunate 1-0 defeat to FC Ballkani in Kosovo.
It was striker Sunday Adetunji who put Ballkani ahead in the second half.
Previously scoring against Rovers in the same competition three years ago while playing for North Macedonian side Shkupi, Adetunji is a former Nigerian international who scored 18 goals in Ballkani’s league campaign last season and managed three of the teams five goals in the previous round of the conference league when they played Floriana.
One of the only times this season that Rovers have been outplayed in possession, Ballkani showed early on that they were a step above previous opposition St Joseph’s by carving open Rovers’ defence 12 minutes into the game with Ed McGinty being brought into the game from the early stages of the first half.
That is not to say that Rovers were totally outclassed themselves, while Ballkani offered stiff opposition Rovers managed to get into threatening areas and had possibly the best chance of the entire half just before the interval.
Josh Honohan’s header from a Dylan Watts cross was kept from the back of the net by an excellent save from the Ballkani keeper.
In the second half, Rovers would start well but Adetinji would soon break the deadlock.
Ballkani will be frustrated that they did not double their lead only minutes later after a bad miss with an open goal on offer due to a rebound via an Ed McGinty save.
Ballkani continued to press forward however Rovers would hold firm preventing any further goals from getting past and replicating another chance against in the box at the death of the game.
Almost the exact same as their chance at the end of the first half a Dylan Watts delivery being met by the head of Josh Honohan.
The fullback was unable to convert and the game would finish 1-0 with Rovers defeated heading into this Thursday’ s fixture in Tallaght.
Manager Stephen Bradley spoke after the game.
“We were poor in the first half in every aspect. Second half we were slightly better, but overall it was levels below what we have been domestically and in Europe for quite some time.
“It was very unlike us in every aspect, sometimes it happens. We need to, like I said, assess everything and try and understand why.
‘The positive is that we’re right in the game and we know that we will be better next week.
“I can’t remember the last European game that we were off like that in the first half and we were off it.
‘We’ve just got to make sure next week that we perform and we get back to our levels. I know we have enough within the group to go and win the game and win the tie.”
