Stephen Bradley spoke to shamrockrovers.ie ahead of Sunday’s tie in the Aviva. The match kicks off at 2pm with coverage on Virgin Media Two.
Our first game of the season, the first leg of the Conference League playoff tie away to Molde resulted in an impressive 1-0 win, with the second leg to come next Thursday in Tallaght. It must’ve been a happy late-night flight home from Norway on Thursday.
“Yes, it was. When you put all the above into the mix, our first competitive game against a good team, away from home, in Europe, which are always hard games, I thought the players were excellent and fully deserved to win in the end. It’s always nice to win, but especially your first game away in Europe, so it was a nice feeling on the plane coming back”
Molde had the majority of possession in the first 20 minutes, but our shape and concentration meant they caused Ed McGinty few scares in that phase. Were you confident that we would find our feet in possession once we didn’t give any chances or goals away?
“We knew Molde would have possession early, when we listened to their media, we knew they would try and start really quickly. We knew we needed to stay focused early on, I thought we did that really well as I can’t remember Ed making a save. So, once we grew into the game, I thought we were excellent.”
The Molde red card was obviously a massive moment in the game, but it came from the edge of our own box when Pico Lopes blocked a shot and Matt Healy, Danny Mandroiu and Dylan Watts combined to send Michael Noonan through on goal when he was taken down.
“It was good defending, then Matt played a really good ball to Danny who combined really well with Dylan. Michael’s run was brilliant, you see his pace and then the Molde defender takes him down and gets sent off. This shows how clever Michael is in terms of how he thinks about the game. Early on, Molde were getting around the side of Michael, or fouling him, but he worked it out really quickly in how to adjust and his movement from there on was excellent.”
Michael’s deft finish for the winning goal came after brilliant chasing down by Dylan. How pleased were you at how we seemed to continue to show such energy after that as the game wore on, it being our first game of the season but notwithstanding having an extra man?
“You’re always a little bit nervous. You think you’ve done your work, and the players have worked extremely hard, but as coaches, you think you’ve done your work but you’re not quite sure until the players are in the heat of battle. But the lads looked really fit and strong, which was good to see. We grew stronger as the game went on and I think the goal summed it up. We had five or six players in the final third pressing heavily, Dylan’s is a great press, and he won it back, and Michael was there to score the goal. So, all round, it was a really good press.”
The reaction worldwide to Michael’s record-breaking goal has been incredible. How important and how difficult will that be to try and keep Michael’s energy and focus on, as you always say, the next game. In only his first professional game, he has set some bar for himself.
“I think Michael will be fine. It’s one of his strengths; he’s focused and has that elite mentality and that’s so important. As I said before, there will be times we’ll have to protect Michael and take him out for a bit, help him and that’s quite normal. There will be ups and downs. The only consistency in young players is they can be inconsistent. So, you have to understand, accept and respect that, and that’s fine. He started on Thursday as we felt he was ready and for no other reason. We need to keep Michael focused, keep working hard, which I’ve no doubt he will do as that’s the type he is. It’s up to us to protect Michael.”
As you alluded to after the Molde game, once the plane arrived back in Dublin, focus is on the huge league opener, a Dublin Derby against Bohemians at Aviva Stadium. It’s a hugely exciting opening week of the season for both players and supporters. The players must be buzzing for it already.
“It’s brilliant for us but again, that’s what this team has created in the last six or seven years in terms of big games. They just roll into each other and that’s the case now. We’re off the back of an historic game and straight into another one. That’s what this club and team is about, it’s what we do, and we’ll be ready for it. We know Sunday will be difficult, but big stadia, big pitches, these players grow, and we’ve seen that time and time again. I’ve no doubt they’ll walk out on Sunday, chest out and be ready for it.”
What kind of gameplan might you expect from Bohemians who have added Conor Parsons and ex EPL forward Lys Mousset?
“As you mentioned, Bohs will be very dangerous in the final third of the pitch, they’ve got real threats there. So, we’ve got to respect that and be ready. But then we need to impose our game as we did on Thursday, respect the opposition but impose our game as quickly as possible and that’ll be the aim tomorrow.”
It’s the first league game of the season at Aviva stadium. Does that mentally change the dynamic as the game and hype and increasing ticket sales might give the game a sort of cup final feel?
“No, it doesn’t. When you look at this group, they were in Stamford Bridge six weeks ago, in Vienna a couple of weeks before that, and I could go on and on about the past few years but especially last year. Most recently playing away in Molde, these games are quite normal now for this group. We know it’s a big occasion for the league and for everyone, but we don’t look at it as anything other than the next game. That’s always been our mentality. We didn’t change it for any European game last year so it won’t change now.”
How did everyone who played in Norway come out of that Molde game and is there any update on Trevor Clarke’s knock, Darragh Nugent’s protective face mask and Rory Gaffney’s appearance for the Under 20’s this week?
“There are a few little knocks, we won’t take any chances considering we have such a busy schedule and load early in the season, so we need to be careful. Some players covered a lot of ground on Thursday, we need to be careful in that regard. We’re still waiting to hear on Trevor’s injury, Jack Byrne is progressing well and getting there, and Rory plays today for the under 20’s. We’re still waiting for Darragh’s face mask, if it was just a broken nose, he could play but he has a few different fractures around his eye socket so we can’t take any chances with that. Darragh is gutted as he feels fine and fit, but we have to be careful when he has those fractures around his eyes.”
