Stephen Bradley fumes with ‘awful’ start from Shamrock Rovers in derby defeat at Shelbourne

Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley says his team produced the ‘worst defensive display’ of his near eight-year tenure in last night’s Premier Division defeat to Shelbourne with experienced centre halves Dan Cleary, Sean Hoare and Lee Grace all in the firing line.

Rovers conceded twice in the opening 26 minutes with Shels also missing a penalty and several other opportunities.

The champions responded with Bradley very happy with their attacking play even though Shels held out for the win.

But he couldn’t really complain about the outcome because of how his team started.

“Awful,” was a succinct description of the Rovers opening. “Back three, it’s probably the worst defensive display I’ve ever seen from us.

“You’re talking about Dan Cleary, Sean Hoare, Lee Grace – I would say 12-15 leagues there between them and we played like we’d never played a game together before.

“To get done from a goal kick (the origin of Shels’ second goal through Will Jarvis) which we went through during the week, we showed videos on it,” he said.

“It was quite obvious what they do. It was actually embarrassing to get done by that. We were really, really poor. Our back three are top players but they were a million miles away.

“They were dropping to play and going long. The game becomes too big. Crazy stuff.

“It’s not respecting the game, not understanding what Shels are going to do and bring to the game.

“They were always going to bring the energy early on and get the crowd involved. Our back three played into their hands.

“If it was Josh (Honohan) in there (their winter signing from Cork City) with two young boys you’d say ‘you know what, it’s learning’, but you’re talking about three top centre halves.

“In another game we score five, we had that many good chances. Some of our attacking play was top level. We created opportunities. It wasn’t a problem. The problem was, our backs had a night off.”

“If you defend like that against any team in this league you will get punished. Embarrassing stuff defensively, really poor.”

The loss of first choice wing backs Neil Farrugia and Trevor Clarke to injury has tested the Hoops with Bradley forced to rotate with various options across the 90 minutes due to various circumstances.

He confirmed that winter signing Aaron McEneff will be out for another four to five weeks after seeing a specialist in London about a problem with his quad but said Jack Byrne will be back in the fold next week while Pico Lopes’ post-African Cup of Nations break could end earlier than expected.

Bradley acknowledged that the setbacks are part and parcel of what comes with the territory.

“That’s why the best team wins the league,” he continued. “Because you are getting thrown different problems and scenarios every week.

“There is no point crying about it or giving out about it, it’s life, you get injuries, it happens. We have a big squad.

“We’re not happy with our defensive game, but it’s the second game, we’ll understand, move on and hopefully we can get our act together defensively.”

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