Stephen Bradley spoke to shamrockrovers.ie before Thursday night’s match in Molde. The match kicks off at 17.45 Irish time with coverage on Premier Sports

After the briefest of off-seasons, and less and than two months after playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, our 2025 season kicks off away to Molde in the UEFA Conference League play-off first leg. It must feel like you were barely away with such a short break.

“Yes, it’s obviously been a very quick break. After London we had three and a half weeks off, which was a lot shorter than normal. But when you’re playing such big games into late December and then early February, it shows you’ve been successful and done things right. You’d take that every year, it’s what we want, and we’ll be ready for Molde on Thursday.”

How challenging has it been for everyone to have their much-needed rest but then to be back so soon for what will be a very demanding start to the new season?

“It was challenging at the back end of last season, keeping everyone at a level where while we were finished domestically, we still had to compete at European level. So that was a challenge but a nice challenge for the staff and the players and I thought we coped with it reasonably well, which is a credit to the players. This off-season was another challenge, in that we didn’t have a lot of friendly games, as we’d just been back, and we’d played over fifty games last season. So, we made the decision to take pre-season down in terms of games. You have to be mindful that we’re not going to be as sharp as what we’d like to be early on, but we’ve to look at the overall picture for the season.”

Several players left the club, and several new faces have arrived. How have our new signings; Danny Grant, Matt Healy, Ed McGinty, Adam Matthews and Michael Noonan settled in and how has pre-season shaped up so far?

“Pre-season’s been good. As you said, a few have left and a few have come in, which is quite normal. I think it’s important that the team keeps evolving, changing, and stays fresh. There’s a nice feel around the group and although the players who left were very good for us and we wish them well, it’s always important that new faces come in and you keep evolving as a group. We’re still looking to bring in one or two more, we’ve been working on them for some time now. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. We won’t bring in bodies just for the sake of it, we’ve never done that. So, the group has been good, working hard and we’ll be ready.”

To the challenge away to Molde on Thursday. We met them at the group Conference Group stage in 2022, they beat us 2-0 in Tallaght and 3-0 at their home. Would you expect their playing style to be much the same as 2022 and do you feel playing them back then will help your preparation this week?

“I think their principles are very similar to what they were in 2022. But they have a new manager and a slightly different set-up in how they play. They still have good players, there’s no doubt about that. I think the games back in 2022, both legs were different. In the 3-0 away defeat, we made nearly eleven changes as we had a big domestic game at the weekend. So that really hurt the performance, and we were well beaten over there. And then in the home game, Fofana scored a goal that was about five yards offside, so the two legs were completely different. I’d imagine these two legs will be slightly different again. We’re a different team with different personnel and Molde are too. Thursday will be a difficult game but we’re looking forward to it.”

What or who at Molde in particular are the patterns of play or players of which Rovers need to be wary of?

“As a group, as a collective, Molde are strong. They are well organised and well drilled. They have dynamic players in the final third, you can see that. They understand their game and everyone’s game as a collective very well, so they’re a strong team but so are we. It has the makings to be a really good game.”

You had hoped to get Rory Gaffney fit for the new season, what’s the latest with Rory and does anyone in the group miss the trip to Molde with pre-season injury?

“Rory is doing really well. We’re hoping to get him some minutes in an U20s game this week. All going well, that will be Rory back which will be great. He’s worked extremely hard in the background, had such a difficult year last year with all the niggles and injuries. He got them cleared up and we made the decision between us all last year to shut him down and get everything right. So right now, he looks like he’s there and ready to go, which is great. 

Darragh Nugent picked up a bad facial knock at training in Spain in a collision with Gary O’Neill. He picked up a fracture around his nose and eyes, so Darragh can’t be in any contact sport until we get him a mask and that takes a bit of time, so he’s ruled out of Thursday but we’re pushing for the mask as soon as possible. 

Trevor Clarke has a knock and is out. Jack Byrne is a couple of weeks away. After the Chelsea game in London, Jack got a procedure done on his knee, which bothered him all last season and is why he couldn’t get up to speed. So, he had the procedure and is back running and doing well. So we’re hoping he’s only a couple of weeks away which would be great.”