Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley heads to Iceland for a second look at Stjarnan this morning as the Dubliners weigh up how back to take the game to their opponents in Thursday's first leg of their Europa League tie.
The Dubliner went with two strikers, Michael O'Connor and Gary Shaw, against Drogheda on Friday night and while it took some time for the pair to click they combined well just after the break to give Rovers a goal that ultimately set them on their way for a 4-1 win.
Bradley says that he has yet to decide, though, whether both will start in Iceland although clearly he is tempted.
“We have to have a look at them,” he said of Stjarnan, who play Akranes on Saturday afternoon, immediately after Rovers’ league win. “It will be interesting to see them live and where their strengths and weaknesses are. I like the two up front whenever we can get them on the pitch. The defenders are used to marking one and when you put them up against two they start to panic a bit because now they have to win their individual battles and if they lose one they usually get punished, that’s what happened tonight.
“But we’ll have a look at them tomorrow afternoon and see where they are strong and see where they are weak.”
He acknowledges, however, that his side will have to be better in defence than they were against United with uncertain defending handing Pete Mahon’s side a number of scoring chances, only one of which they managed to take.
“Yeah, there’s still lots to improve,” he said. “I thought we were down our levels compared to the last few weeks but yeah, it’s a good second half, we’ve scored four and could have had more but if you are being picky there’s room for improvement too.
“We can’t defend like that and expect to win on Thursday, we’ll get punished. I’m going out to see them tomorrow but I watched them already on Monday and they’re a dangerous team; they attack in numbers very quickly and if we defend like that we’ll get punished and get beat so we need to tidy that up.”
Bradley will have Graham Burke and David McAllister back from suspension for the game giving him quite a few options for midfielder but 17 year-old Aaron Bolger might just have done enough against Drogheda to get himself into the reckoning. The teenager came off the bench to make one then score one in the second half and the manager was quick to recognise the scale of the contribution.
“The goal we gave away was poor from our point of view but we responded well. The young lads, Aaron and James were excellent, they got us playing again.
“He (Bolger) has struggled a little bit this season. He’s been away with Ireland and before that he was injured, in a boot, so that’s the reason he couldn’t play for us but he’s in full-time with us, trains with us in the morning then does his education in the afternoon, which is great, it gives him the opportunity to adapt. He plays like he’s in his late twenties or early thirties but he’s only 17. He's going to be a really good player.”
The win moved Rovers above Derry and into fourth in the table Bradley now has Bray Wanderers in his sights. “When we lost up in Derry I thought it was very harsh but I knew that we could catch Derry, we weren’t a million miles from them and the same goes for Bray, we just need to keep doing our business and look at Bray. After that it’s Dundalk but Bray’s the next one.”
