Stephen Bradley spoke to shamrockrovers.ie before Thursday’s final home match of 2024. Tickets remain on sale.

It’s two weeks since a crucial and deserved Conference league point was won in Vienna with Johnny Kenny cancelling out Rapid Vienna’s early goal. You’ll have watched the game back. It’s a huge result against a team who had three wins out of three up to then.

“Yes it’s a big result. Any result away from home is hard to come by, we saw that this week in the Champions League. It was a big result for us against a team that is doing really well. I thought the players deserved it, especially second half. Our first half could’ve been better, but second half was very good.”

You had fears that our lack of competitive action since the TNS victory might be an issue even though we’d played a friendly against HJK Helsinki the week before Vienna, albeit without several senior players. Might that explain some way why Rapid dominated that first half?

“I think so. You could see we were a little bit tentative and a bit off in our minds. That’s only natural when you haven’t played competitive football. But to be fair to the players they got to grips with it very quickly so second half it was a lot more like us. But the lack of that competitive action definitely played a part.”

Not having that competitive edge with weekly and sometimes twice weekly games must be a real headache for everyone, players and staff, especially at this level. Does that make the draw with Rapid even more impressive?

“I think it does. I think it’s a challenge for us all. It’s new but it’s a nice challenge and we’re enjoying it. When we were speaking with the TV lads in Vienna, they couldn’t believe how well we performed considering we were out of season a few weeks. That’s definitely the challenge for us all, but we’re here and we knew this was going to be the case. So it’s about enjoying it and meeting those challenges head-on. There will be mistakes made, but it’s a brilliant learning experience, we’re learning on the job and there’s no tougher environment when you’re in front of twenty odd thousand fans away from home in Europe. But as I said, the players deserve credit for how they responded after the first half.”

You stated when we celebrated in the South Stand in Tallaght after qualifying for the league stage after knocking out NK Celje about the importance of celebrating those milestones at the time. So you were again true to your word by enjoying a night with the big Rovers support afterwards in Vienna. Memories like these are huge for both the group and the fans.

“I think that’s important. You can’t underestimate how important these nights and results are for people and the club. The fans who support this club are incredible people. They follow us through thick and thin, always have and always will for moments like Vienna. They’ve seen us win leagues and cups, but moments like Vienna are special away from home so you’ve got to enjoy those moments. If you can’t enjoy those moments with the people who support this football club then you shouldn’t be in the game. That’s what it’s about for us, it’s a thank you to the fans to say we appreciate them and we genuinely do. Anyone I met who was there said Vienna was something they’ll never forget, so for me that’s why you do this job, to hear people say that. Men and women who were there with their children were telling me it’s something they’ll never forget. So that’s magical, it’s special.”

But your attention turned quickly after Vienna to our last home game of 2024, another massive Conference League game at home against Borac Banja Luka. How has the group maintained sharpness since then and how’s training been the past two weeks?

“Training has been good. It hasn’t been as long a break as it was before Vienna when the players had some time off and they needed that break and time off. So it just feels like we’re back in our rhythm which is nice. But we haven’t had the competitive game which Borac had last weekend, they had a top of the table clash so that’s the only disadvantage. But the break hasn’t been too bad this time, we’ve been training constantly and I think we’ll be in a better place with it.”

Borac have a win over APOEL who we drew with in the Conference League, a defeat to Vikingur, who we beat in the Champions League and a win and loss elsewhere so seven points is a decent haul for them. What have you made of their strengths and weaknesses and style of football?

“Borac have some very good attacking players. Both wide players are very good, we’ll see that tomorrow. They have threats from crosses and are strong there, they have a clear identity with that. They’ve come off the top of the table clash at the weekend, which I like when you are in a good rhythm, so I’m sure they’ll have that. So there’s no doubt this will be a tough game but if we can close to a full stadium tomorrow, get them behind us, we can win the game and see where that takes us in terms of automatic qualification. It will be really tight but it gives us a hell of a chance if we can do it.”

We have a very good home record in Europe so despite facing another really difficult game against Borac, you’ll be hoping a combination of our definite progress in terms of lessons learned at this level and a sizeable crowd and passionate Tallaght Stadium can deliver another positive result for us.

“We need the crowd and the numbers. This could be an historic night for us in terms of getting to eleven points which would give us a great chance if automatic qualification which would be incredible. So we need to be at the top of our game, we’ll need the fans with us against a good team. But we know if we can get that combination of a big crowd and the team at our levels, that’s a formidable combination. So hopefully we see that tomorrow night.”

How did everyone come out of the Rapid Vienna game? Aaron McEneff and Rory Gaffney are already ruled out, anyone else unavailable tomorrow?

“We’ll leave Aaron and Rory until January. Aaron could’ve pushed it for the Chelsea game next week but we didn’t see the point of it. Danny Mandroiu, Graham Burke and Aaron Greene are all back training since the start of the week so that’s three big pluses for us, so they’re all getting up to speed again. So the group is in a good place in that regard.”