End of Season Report Card 2018 - Shamrock Rovers

Team: Shamrock Rovers

Head Coach: Stephen Bradley

Top Scorer: Graham Burke (13 league goals from 22 games)

Stadium:  Tallaght Stadium

Highest Attendance: 4,512 (v Bohemians, 13 April)

Lowest Attendance: 1,512 (v Bray Wanderers, 26 February)

Star Player: Lee Grace

It was a blank for Shamrock Rovers in the PFAI team of the year with the surprise around Tallaght being the omission of Lee Grace. The Carrick-on-Suir central defender was the clear winner of the Hoops player of the year award. Grace played in all bar one of Rovers’ league games (and that was due to suspension) and was the standout player for Rovers right across the season.

Best Young Player: Gavin Bazunu

For all the talk of young teenage talent in Tallaght, there wasn’t a dominant young player in the team. Aaron Bolger, Brandon Kavanagh and Gavin Bazunu all showed their qualities when they played; However Stephen Bradley didn’t overload those players, as between them they made just 18 league starts. Bolger, along with Dean Dillon who went on loan to Longford Town mid-season, had limited game time ahead of sitting the Leaving Cert last June.

16-year-old Gavin Bazunu earned the most headlines, a huge transfer fee and the club’s supporters young player of the year prize. He made four league starts – without conceding a goal – and two Europa League qualifier appearances, as he became the youngest ever player to line out for Rovers in Europe. It was enough for Manchester City to jump in and secure the services of the ‘keeper from Firhouse and he will make the move to Manchester after he finishes his Leaving Cert next year.

The night in July when Bazunu saved Kieran Sadlier’s penalty in Turners Cross to secure a draw for Shamrock Rovers – the first points dropped at home by Cork City at that stage of the season – was one of the season’s highlights for Shamrock Rovers supporters.

Some say teenagers are too preoccupied these days with the iPhones and iPads. Maybe true as 16-year-old ‘keeper Gavin Bazunu watched back this season’s Cork City penalties on the Rovers team bus to Cork earlier. His peno save earned @ShamrockRovers a point in Turner’s Cross pic.twitter.com/niukC3H0Nk

— Macdara Ferris (@macdarabueller) July 6, 2018

Best New Signing: Dylan Watts

Rovers did some good business ahead of the season kick off with Greg Bolger and Dan Carr being the best of that bunch but it was a case of what might have been if they had brought Alan Mannus in at that time rather than in the mid-season transfer window.

Gavin Bazunu stepping into the team in mid-June after one too many Tomer Chenchinski errors and the Rovers return of Alan Mannus were crucial to the excellent second half of the season for the Hoops. In the subsequent 15 league games to the season’s end, they kept 11 clean sheets and conceded just five goals.

Graham Burke’s transfer in mid-June for a figure reported to be around €350,000 allowed the Hoops bring in Aaron Greene and Dylan Watts and it was the 21-year-old player who represents Rovers best signing. Watts filled the creative hole left by Burke, and he was ever present in Rovers’ team after his mid-season move from Bohemians.

What we expected they would do:

Ahead of the start of the season, the extratime.ie team predicted that the Hoops would finish third (see here) and that is exactly the position where Stephen Bradley’s men ended up in.

What they actually did:

SSE Airtricity League

If the Hoops had shown consistency right across the season, they certainly would have been closer to run away league champions Dundalk. However, across a congested five week section of the season, they won only one league game in seven.

That brittle spell started in mid-March after Rovers had started the season in good form. When the Hoops travelled to Waterford for the eighth game of the league season they were actually looking to go top. It was a costly 2-1 defeat to the Blues at the RSC. Ally Gilchrist’s two yellow cards in two minutes inside the first ten minutes of the match put pay to Rovers chances against Waterford but Trevor Clarke’s season ending injury in that game probably proved more damaging.

Last season ill-discipline had hampered the Hoops and while the red cards halved to five in 2018, Rovers still lost four of the five matches that they had a man sent off in. They finished the season once again really strongly and secured third place and qualified for Europe for the fifth year running but it remains seven seasons since they last mounted a title challenge.

FAI Cup

The Hoops cup heartbreak clock ticks to 31 years since their last victory in the competition they have won 24 times. It was an embarrassing early First Round exit this year to First Division opponents Drogheda United.

Europa League

Having lost 1-0 in the first qualifying round first leg at home against AIK, not too many people gave the Hoops much of a chance in the second leg played in Sweden’s national stadium. However, the Hoops won 1-0 in 90 minutes thanks to a Dan Carr goal and were only eliminated when AIK scored in extra time to win the tie 2-1 on aggregate.

EA Sports Cup

Having made nine changes from the previous league game, the Hoops were beaten 1-0 at home by Longford Town in the second round of the League Cup.

What they need to improve on for next year:

It is an easy thing to highlight but not so easy to solve. The Hoops simply need a regular goalscorer. Their defence has been miserly since Bazunu and Mannus became Stephen Bradley’s goalkeeping duo. Ethan Boyle proved many of the doubters wrong after Bradley decided to dispense with the services of Simon Madden in the off-season. Pico Lopes and Lee Grace have developed a great partnership and right backs around the league will be filled with fear with the prospect of Sean Kavanagh and a fit again Trevor Clarke raiding down the left next season.

The Hoops are certainly not short of midfield talent with Ronan Finn, Bolger major-and-minor (Greg and Aaron), Brandon Kavanagh and Dylan Watts all vying for positions in the middle.

Get a goalscorer into that team and the Hoops could be the club to step into Cork City’s shoes as the main title challengers for Dundalk next season.

Following tonight's result @ShamrockRovers are guaranteed to play @EuropaLeague qualifiers in 2019 pic.twitter.com/AVBle9MfKH

— Shamrock Rovers F.C. (@ShamrockRovers) October 8, 2018