- Macdara Ferris
- Sun, Apr 30 2023
Macdara Ferris reports from Tallaght Stadium
Shamrock Rovers Head Coach Stephen Bradley hailed his teenager striker Johnny Kenny after his goalscoring performance in the 2-1 home win over Sligo Rovers on Friday night.
Bradley also acknowledged the difficulties that the visitors put his team under and was thankful to take all three points ahead of the trip to Derry on Bank Holiday Monday.
Kenny made it back-to-back matches opening the scoring for the Hoops as he brought his tally to four goals from his last six starts for Shamrock Rovers. He opened the scoring getting onto a Markus Poom pass in the 19th minute.
“Johnny's movement was really good,” said Bradley speaking about the goal to extratime.com after Rovers made it five wins from their last six league games.
“He came short and the defender (Nando Pijnaker) stepped in and then he dipped in behind him and once he is one-v-one left or right foot you fancy him as he is really good finisher.
“The more he plays with us, he is only going to get better, fitter and stronger. You can see at 70 minutes, he was getting tired as the way we play demands so much.”
Sligo striker
The striker signed for Bradley’s side on loan from Celtic after moving to the Scottish side following a brilliant debut season with his home town club Sligo Rovers. The player spoke to this writer in the build-up to last Friday’s game about the Bit O’ Bed.
Kenny said:
“There is massive passion for football in Sligo town. They are big on their football and there is a great following for the club and they are great for getting behind the team. Probably making my debut for Sligo Rovers was one of the proudest days of my life.”
When he scored the goal on Friday, there was no reeling away to celebrate in front of the away supporters but he simply accepted the high fives of his Shamrock Rovers teammates.
“We all know he loves Sligo and that club,” said Bradley. “They mean a lot to him. He's made no secret of that. He is 19 and I think we all forget that with Johnny at times.
“What Johnny has is that he is not afraid to miss. When you have that as a centre-forward you'll always score. Johnny always puts himself in areas to score goals. The way we create, I've no doubt he will score a lot of goals for us. So far he's been excellent.”
Bit O’ Red battle
The Hoops have averaged 60% possession in their home games this season but Friday night was the first time this year in Tallaght that their opponents had more of the ball. The Bit O’ Red had 52% possession and had more attempts on goal than the Hoops – 14 shots (4 on target) to 9 shots (3 on target).
“They are a good side,” said Bradley about John Russell’s team. “They are the best side that we have played. We felt that after the first round of games and we felt that again tonight. We had to show different qualities.
“When you are successful, you have to have so many different aspects to your game. Everyone knows we can play and dominate games but sometimes you have to dig in and work and show that togetherness. They've shown grit and determination and we got the win.”
Handful for the Hoops
The Hoops were able to keep the league top goalscorer Max Mata off the scoresheet. “He is a good player. He's scored some goals this year (8 in total) but his all round play is also good. You can see he was a handful for us and he's been a handful for everyone.
"Pico (Lopes) looks back to himself. When he is in that form, he is very difficult to get any change out of at all.
“It was a good battle between them but there were good battles all over the pitch. First half they won a lot of them but in the second half we got on top in some of them and got our rewards.”
Monday sees Shamrock Rovers face Derry City in the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium at 7.15pm for what Bradleys says “will be a difficult game up in Derry against a good side.”
Rory Gaffney, Ronan Finn and Simon Power will be part of his squad this time around while Liam Burt remains a doubt. Sean Gannon, Sean Kavanagh and Dylan Watts are still on the injured list.
