Rovers to focus on league clash with champions Shels

SHAMROCK Rovers will be turning their attentions back to the domestic league this Saturday after their fantastic run in the UEFA Conference League came to an end.

The Tallaght side could not have asked for a bigger match this weekend when they square up to league champions Shelbourne in Tolka Park. Rovers game against Cork City was called off at the last-minute last Sunday due to terrible weather conditions in Tallaght, and they will be anxious to get their season off to a good start.

Shels have enjoyed a good start to their campaign with a 1-0 over Waterford last weekend with Tallaght lad Mipo Odubeko, who only joined the club in December, scoring the only goal for Damien Duff’s side.

It has been a busy few weeks for Rovers which saw them crash out of the Conference League after substitute Aaron Greene saw his penalty missed as they went down 5-4 in the shoot-out.

However Rovers have been boosted by the likes of Danny Grant, Michael Noonan and Rory Gaffney confirming this week they will remain at the club.

Rovers will be fired up travelling to Shels having lost their opening game of the season to Bohemians in the Aviva Stadium.

Speaking after the European exit Stephen Bradley spoke of positives even in such a heartbreaking European exit.

Michael Noonan, Victor Ozhianvuna, Cory O’Sullivan and John O’Sullivan all showed exceptional maturity to go with their exceptional talent.

“Yes, and it’s a reason we haven’t brought in more bodies on top of what we already brought in.

“We don’t want to block their paths,” said Bradley.

“We feel that they’re ready.

“You look at Cian Barrett and John O’Sullivan who went out on loan last year and young Cory, Victor and Michael who has come in.

“We feel they’re ready to play and young Max Kovalevskis is ready to come back after his knee injury.

“When you look at the squad, we’ve good players in positions, but as I said, you don’t want to block the paths of the ones who are ready to play and are good enough.

“We feel it’s time to give them their head and I think they’re showing that right now, that they’re earning it and are ready.”

On the Molde game Bradley said: “It is a hard one to take.

We’ve had our staff review on the Molde game, we go through all our metrics on it so we’re not emotional thinking about it, and how we performed, and if we should’ve gone through.

“All the metrics tell us what we felt that we were the better team over both legs and we deserved to go through.

“But unfortunately, in life and in football, you don’t always get what you deserve, and we’ve got to take that on the chin.

“We’ve got to try and learn from it as best we can and be better for it going forward and we will be. But right now, it is a hard one to take.”