Shamrock Rovers Head Coach Stephen Bradley didn’t fault the performance of his players in their disappointing 1-1 stalemate with Limerick at the Tallaght Stadium. “I thought the boys were excellent. They played some really good football, worked rea
Shamrock Rovers Head Coach Stephen Bradley didn’t fault the performance of his players in their disappointing 1-1 stalemate with Limerick at the Tallaght Stadium.
“I thought the boys were excellent. They played some really good football, worked really hard and created a lot of chances.”
Bradley did bemoan the profligacy which allowed Tommy Barrett’s Limerick claim a valuable point, courtesy of a late Danny Morrissey strike. “One of those things,” said Bradley. “We didn’t take our chances and got punished in the end.”
Bradley was encouraged by the contrast to Rovers previous two games. “(Against) Bray and Bohs, we didn’t create as many chances as we did tonight. We didn’t put them away and obviously got hit with a late one.”
“When we didn’t put the chances away, they felt they were still in the game. They just threw caution to the wind. But even in the second half, we had two or three good chances to put the game to bed and we didn’t take them.”
The Hoops had a stranglehold on possession, particularly in the opening half, which was punctuated by another wonderful Graham Burke goal on 15 minutes. “The goal was good - great strike by Graham,” reflected Bradley. “There’s some really good play leading up to the goal and afterwards I thought they was some really good play.”
“It looked bad. Looked a bad challenge,” was Bradley’s assessment of Cian Coleman’s tackle on Aaron Bolger that earned a 90th minute red card from referee Neil Doyle, albeit the Rovers supremo admitted that his view of the incident was somewhat obscured.
“He was excellent. Came in, gave us his energy,” said Bradley of the younger Bolger, who made his first start in the Hoops colours this season. The Head Coach was also heartened by a late cameo from striker Dean Dillon, another Rover whose first team opportunities have been restricted so far this term. “Dean has had to be really patient because Dan Carr has been really good. I thought Deano did well.”
