Stephen Bradley: ‘We take the legs out of teams; we tire them out mentally and physically’

Macdara Ferris reports from Tallaght Stadium

While Stephen Bradley was delighted with the performance of match winner Liam Scales against Longford Town on Sunday, the Hoops Head Coach was also delighted with his team’s patience and their performance coming on the back of a difficult European game last Thursday.

“Liam was excellent,” said Bradley about birthday boy Scales who, despite transfer speculation, will travel out to Albania this week as part of the Hoops Squad for the second leg of their UEFA Europa League third round qualifier.  

“He showed how versatile he is. He was left side centre half and then we pushed him to left wing back as he is always a goal threat. It was a fantastic header from nearly 18 yards out.”

When KF Teuta came to Tallaght last week, they only had one attempt on target – compared with Rovers’ 13 - and while Longford Town certainly were more ambitious in attack than the Albanian champions, it required similar patience for the Hoops to break them down to get back-to-back injury time winners.

“We knew what we would face (against Longford). That is a compliment to our squad how teams are setting up this way against us. We have to respect it is a game plan for teams and we have to keep working to break them down. 

“We had till wait till late and some weeks that is the way it is. We keep believing in what we do. Keep trusting what we do and we don't get frustrated. You could hear the players on the pitch saying 'it's coming, it's coming'. We have done it so many time. We take the legs out of teams; we tire them out mentally and physically.

“You can feel it in the dressing room, the players are focused and are on it. They know how important these games are. Nobody was taking Longford lightly at all. When you play at a high level in Europe, you take that into the domestic games. They stayed at that level and they have done that since the games against Slovan and we will continue to do that.”

Rovers know that should the progress passed Teuta this week, a Europa Conference League play-off awaits them against the loser of the Europa League qualifier between Flora Tallinn and Omonoia.

The Cypriot side travel to Tallinn to play on Tuesday with a 1-0 lead from the first leg. Rovers’ game is on Thursday and Bradley certainly expects Teuta to come out of the shell for the second leg.

“We will face a different team in terms of the mentality of how they will approach the game (against Teuta). We have to be ready for that. How they played here on Thursday is how they played in Sherriff away and it was the same result - losing 1-0. When they played Sherriff at home they really came out and played.” 

League Report: Shamrock Rovers 1 - 0 Longford Town https://t.co/i9mA4igneTpic.twitter.com/sqsGEnMn0o

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