‘We have to be very careful’ – Rovers boss

TALLAGHT Stadium is expected to be packed to capacity on Thursday evening when Shamrock Rovers square up to Molde in the Conference League second leg play-off.

It’s not too often nights like this come around for League of Ireland teams and Stephen Bradley’s side go into this game with a 1-0 advantage after the win in Norway last week.

A result for Rovers would see them into the last 16 of the competition and they will bank over €7 million in prize money.

There was no additional money for a win or draw in the knockout play-off so their 1-0 win last week did not earn Rovers any additional cash.

But if they progress to the last 16 that would earn another €800,000 and winning that next tie would secure a place in the quarter-final which would be worth a further €1.3m.

The knockout phase play-off winner will play either Cercle Brugge or Legia Warsaw in the round of 16 for a place in the quarter-finals.

Reflecting on last week’s game in Norway, Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley said: “We are obviously happy winning away.

“It was hard, and we have to be very careful. It’s only the first leg and we have them this week.

“We enjoy these moments.

“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 weeks result, they did slip up in the opening round of the league on Sunday when they went down 1-0 to Dublin rivals Bohemians played in front of a record crowd of 33,208.

The night belonged to former St Patrick’s Athletic player Michael Noonan last week as he became the youngest goalscorer in The European Conference League 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 the following day, creating his own bit of history against 10-man Molde.

The home side were reduced to 10 men when Valdemar Lund was shown red card after taking down Noonan in what was a key moment in the game.