SHAMROCK ROVERS CARETAKER manager and coach Stephen Bradley praised the influence of first-team coach Damien Duff after the Hoops guaranteed their place in next season’s Europa League.
Having joined the backroom staff at Tallaght Stadium just this year, Bradley said that the 100-time Republic of Ireland international has already had an instant impact at Rovers.
“Damien’s been brilliant, he’s come in and he shoots from the hip and tells you how it is, if he likes something or not,” Bradley told Goal.
“He’s a very good coach and he has a very good eye for what he sees. He’s worked under some of the best managers in the world.
“You couldn’t not learn from someone like him, either on the training pitch or just talking with him in the office. His knowledge is second to none and he’s been massive for me and the group in terms of what his experience and knowledge brings to the table.”
Rovers dominated possession for long periods during last night’s scoreless draw against Bray Wanderers, and had a penalty appeal waved away in injury time when a Gary McCabe shot from inside the area appeared to strike the arm of Hugh Douglas.
Bradley said that on another night, another referee might have given the penalty, but felt that his side had performed well, especially given Bray’s great recent run of form, which has seen them win five of their last six league matches.
“Bray have had a great level of performance in recent weeks, but a lot of people just expected us to come here and wipe the floor with them, but that hasn’t been happening,” the 31-year-old admitted.
“They have been beating all the top teams, they’re not a bad side in midfield and they’ve got the ability to play in behind teams. We were okay and they were okay, they’re a good side, and a hard side to play against.”
While Rovers are yet to decide on who will manage the team next year, Bradley feels that he is already moulding the team into his style and that there have been improvements during his stewardship of the club.
“There’s areas where we can get improve of course,” Bradley revealed. “The players are getting used to me and me getting used to them, but we’re playing better football. I think you saw that on the pitch, it could be better but we work hard to make it better.
“We had the changes to score tonight and if we had it could have opened the game up.”
Hopefully Duff will start a trend of Irish players returning from England after they’ve retired, with the expertise they’ve developed on the game, to help the boost the quality of soccer in this country. Even if it’s a modest small scale trend it could help a lot.
Hopefully but considering the last one to do anything like that was probably Johnny Giles I doubt it will become that much more common.
Not so Liam, there’s plenty of them currently involved in our underage set ups. Duff will work with Colin O’Brien’s U15 team, Stephen McPhail will be with Paul Osam’s U16s as well as being a player coach at rovers, Keith Andrews links up with the U17s, Kenny Cunningham will be in with Tom Mohan’s U19s, and Mark Kinsella will be part of Noel King’s U21s.
Duff is my all time favourite Irish soccer player; it’s his down to earth character and modest nature, his level of skill that he displayed at the highest levels including that performance against Spain in the world cup, his return to Ireland at the end of his career, he’s just an all round top lad
Great player for Ireland. A bit dry as a pundit but like the man says he shoots from the hip and says it like it is.
Bit dry maybe but he doesnt dribble bs like Eamo!