SHAMROCK ROVERS BOSS Stephen Bradley has criticised his side for their below-par display in the President’s Cup at Tallaght Stadium on Friday.

The Hoops ended up winning the match against St Patrick’s Athletic on penalties after the game finished 1-1 in normal time.

However, the hosts were second best for large portions of the contest, lacking threat in the final third, while they were also let off by some wasteful finishing from their opponents.

“We probably only got going in the last 15 minutes,” said Bradley. “Up to that point, I thought we were terrible and St Pat’s should have been out of sight and three or four up. The game should have been over, maybe even at half-time. I thought we were really poor in every aspect and we got going in the last 15 minutes probably. Everything about us tonight was really poor.”

Asked whether it was too early to be concerned by such form, Bradley replied: “No, it’s nice to get that wake-up call before the season and not in the season. Like I said, it wasn’t good enough. We can’t perform like that and expect to get away with it. We got away with one tonight but you can’t perform like that and expect to compete. It’s nice to get it tonight and still win the game, but we were really poor.

“We obviously retained the league already last year and we’ve seen the hunger with how we finished the season. We didn’t respect it enough tonight, in every aspect. We were slow, we were sloppy, our decision-making was poor, our distances were really poor, we were open, our press was poor, everything was poor. We’ll look at it and correct it because that won’t be enough to beat UCD [this coming Friday].”

So did Bradley let his players know that their standards were slipping?

“They know. They know our standards and what we’re capable of. They have proved that for the last three or four years. They know what tonight was and it wasn’t us, it wasn’t good enough. You have to give the players credit for fighting back and getting the draw and winning penalties, that’s character again but overall St Pat’s should have been out of sight.

“That reminded me of Sligo — the game we lost here last season when they beat us 1-0. We were probably worse tonight, to be fair. We were off it in every way, even our decisions on the ball were really slow and sloppy. There are not many of them to be fair and thankfully we had it tonight and not next week with UCD as [Liam] Kerrigan and [Colm] Whelan and people like that will hurt you. It’s a massive wake-up call.”

Jack Byrne made his first competitive appearance since re-signing for Rovers. The Ireland international had a memorable time in his first spell at the club prior to a recent underwhelming stint in Cyprus, winning PFAI Player of the Year during both his seasons with the Hoops. 

The Dubliner’s night ended well, as he scored the winning penalty, but overall he struggled to influence the game in the way that he can. Will it take some time for him to rediscover the type of form League of Ireland fans are used to seeing?

“I think so, to get competitive. That is his first sort of competitive game in a long time. So yeah it will, and the only way he will get that is by playing. We need to make sure that we look after him in the next couple of weeks. But we know he gets it quickly as we’ve seen it before with him. But yeah, it could take him a few weeks to get him up to his level.”

Byrne is the latest recruit in an already well-stocked Rovers attack. Will it be a challenge keeping everyone happy given Bradley’s abundance of options?

“You’re at a club that wants to compete and win things and progress in Europe. Each and every player that’s here wants to be part of that and it’s about the group and the squad and if that’s not for one individual then they don’t belong here. It’s not about keeping people happy. We built this on a group and a squad and togetherness and that will always be in place. The time we come away from that or someone thinks they are bigger than it, they won’t be here.”

Aaron Greene and Andy Lyons were the only players missing on Friday owing to minor knocks, but Bradley said both players will be available for the start of Rovers’ league campaign.

Roberto Lopes, meanwhile, started Friday on the bench following his recent Africa Cup of Nations exploits with Cape Verde.

“He does need a little bit of time, just because if you look at the majority of players who played in the Africa Cup of Nations they were mid-season. They were in the flow and fine but Pico was in the off-season and needed two weeks off and then he played three or four really competitive games. The problem with that is if you rush him back now, you could end up with an injury in three or four weeks’ time. We need to be careful. He’s itching to play.”

Despite being disappointed with the majority of his side, Bradley did have words of encouragement for one player. 

Neil Farrugia has endured a tough time with injuries since joining the club in the summer of 2019 but looked lively on the left and it was his dangerous cross that led to the equalising goal.

“He was probably the one bright spark tonight, I thought he was excellent. He will be big for us, please God. His injury problems are behind him, it looks like. He hasn’t missed anything in pre-season and looks really good at the moment. I thought he was very good tonight. He was probably our only player who played to his level.”