STEPHEN BRADLEY WAS defiant in the aftermath of Shamrock Rovers’ well-earned goalless draw with Víkingur Reykjavík last night.
The stalemate ensures it’s all to play for in the second leg of their first round Champions League qualifier at Tallaght Stadium.
It could have been so much better had Johnny Kenny converted a glorious one-on-one chance with the goalkeeper in the 87th minute.
But there was also added tension for the final 15 minutes after Darragh Nugent picked up a second yellow card.
“I don’t think you can get away from the fact we haven’t been good enough this year. We’d like more points on the board [in the league]. There is a fine line between reasons and excuses,” Bradley said.
“We are where we are now. The bodies are coming back. You see [last night] and against Dundalk what we do when we have our group together. The first half of the season hasn’t been good enough. I don’t think we should shy away from that, but all we can do now is work hard to make sure the second half is a lot better.
“This group, I trust them. We’ve been in the trenches a long, long time and I know what they are as people. I know they stand up, they stood up [last night] and I know between now and the end of the season they will show up.”
Bradley took issue with both yellow cards shown to Nugent, the first one a coming together and the second for diving when the midfielder had actually felt slight contact after slowing his run to draw the foul inside his own half to relieve pressure.
And the Hoops boss preferred to focus on the positives after Kenny’s missed chance, especially as his impact off the bench was clear to see with pace in behind.
“He’s gutted in there. We knew how they defend when they are in possession that we could cause them real problems and Johnny did that when he came on, and I think he’s gutted, especially the one he chips over the bar.
“The first one’s not a bad effort, but the second one, I think, all he has to do is take another touch around him and it’s in. The way Johnny is playing and scoring, you’d fancy him to do that. But the pleasing aspect was he showed where he can really hurt them and I’m sure he’ll do that next week.
“We had Darragh [Burns], Neil [Farrugia] and Johnny on the pitch at that point and we knew they would get impatient being at home and wanting to score and taking a lead to Dublin. We knew those spaces would be there and the game-plan worked really well up to that point.
“If he scores, you’re delighted. But I can’t be too harsh on Johnny, he knows he should score but he has been brilliant for us this year.”
Bradley also praised goalkeeper Leon Pohls for one fine reaction save early in the first half, tipping a header onto the post, as well as a commanding claim in the box in the final moments of second-half stoppage time.
“That was real bravery from him. That’s part of his growing and his learning. To come like that, in a situation like that, you can see the defenders’ reaction. It’s like scoring a goal for them and takes the pressure off.
“It kills the momentum they were trying to build in the game. We know he can do that, we just need to build him now so that he is doing it on a regular basis. It came at a really important time in the game and was brilliant.”
Now it’s to the return leg at Tallaght Stadium, with progress confirming at least two more European ties and prize money in the seven figures.
“Our fans have been incredible, even at Dundalk last week coming off the back of two defeats, they show up and didn’t stop all night,” Bradley said, with 50 also travelling to Iceland.
“We’ll need the fans in big numbers and as loud as possible to make it intimidating and not a nice place for them to come and play, then it’s up to us to go and do our stuff on the pitch.”
