David Sneyd reports from Stamford Bridge

STEPHEN BRADLEY RUED some of the basic errors that cost Shamrock Rovers dear against Chelsea but accepted it was a night when the gulf in class was just too great.

The Hoops boss says the Premier League giants will go on and win the UEFA Conference League if they put their minds to it and have enough depth to challenge for the Champions League.

Rovers finished 10th in the league phase, enough for a play-off spot in February against either Molde or TSC Backa Topola.

There were some emotional scenes at full-time of this 5-1 defeat, when Bradley and his players gathered in front of the 3,000 away fans for a team photo to take in the occasion.

Goal scorer Markus Poom had even more reason to cheer after his partner gave birth last week, and the Estonian international returned to his home country before returning to take part in this game.

As the Rovers faithful serenaded Bradley with a song to the tune of Last Christmas, the pride was clear to see.

But there was also more than an element of frustration at the mistakes that led to the concession of the first two Chelsea goals; firstly a mix-up between Darragh Burns and Leon Pohls before Daniel Cleary under hit a pass back.

“Look you know when you come to places like this against this level of opposition, you’ve got to be faultless in your performance. You cannot give them the goals we gave them in the first half,” Bradley said.

“You can accept moments of quality that are going to hurt you, that’s normal against this level. But we can’t give them goals we gave them and then compete. We knew we had to be at our very best to come here and compete against this level, we knew that.

“The learning is you can’t give away silly goals in big moments. But let’s be clear, we’re not going to be play against this level a lot. We have 11 points, we’ve come here in the play-offs, we’d have taken that before the competition started.

“I know these operate at a different level and have done for many years, we’re not going to play against this level very often. But the learning is when you go up the levels, you can’t give them silly goals because the moments of quality will hurt you.

“The errors we’ve made are very unlike us, very basic errors and at this level it’s ruthless. The players don’t mess about, they punish you and that’s what happened.”

Teams of Chelsea calibre are not where Rovers set the bar, and when asked if they will win this tournament the Rovers boss said: “If they want to. It depends where they are in the Premier League and how they are with injuries and how the squad is.

“If they want to they can show up and probably put another two XIs out there and win this competition. If they’re in the Champions League they could go close to winning that. That’s the level they have. They’re a top club in Europe and if they want to I have no doubt they can win it.”

This was Bradley’s 51st game in Europe as Rovers boss and there will be at least two more in the play-off, with a break to come over Christmas and some new arrivals – and departures – over the next “two to three weeks” according to Bradley.

The 11 points they achieved arriving to Stamford Bridge was a record for an Irish side and Bradley praised their ability to deal with three vital European games following the end of the League of Ireland season, even if he felt it took its toll.

“The players, considering our league season has been over for a month and had some key games in this competition since, the players have done extremely well to get 11 points. The aim was always to come here with the points and already qualified.

“We were up a level against Chelsea and their press was more intense but there were spaces to play through and we just didn’t see the pictures. It was a combination of an intense press and us not playing competitive games for over a month.”

When they resume in the New Year this Rovers adventure in Europe will continue.