SHAMROCK ROVERS MANAGER Stephen Bradley said he was disappointed his side didn’t win tonight’s Conference League meeting with Djurgardens at Tallaght Stadium.
The game finished goalless, with Djurgardens goalkeeper Aleksandr Vasyutin saving efforts from Dylan Watts and Rory Gaffney in the second half, Rovers’ best opening. Rovers improv
“We are frustrated that we didn’t win the game, I believe we had the better chances. There was no half-time talk in terms of ‘go and get at them’, we managed the first-half really well. We didn’t create a lot but games like this, in Europe, you have to be tactically aware and not open.
“We created our problems early on, our passing was too negative. They like to be aggressive in their press and we invited it early on. After that we penetrated them a lot better, but early on we caused our own problems.
“We knew coming into the game they have some good attacking players, but we felt we could cause them problems. We did that.”
Jack Byrne, Rory Gaffney, and Graham Burke were all left on the bench – Byrne and Gaffney were introduced on the hour-mark – with Bradley saying it was a matter of squad rotation.
“It was nothing to do with knocks. We have a busy schedule and it’s about trusting the group and using the squad. We had to respect them and our shape in and out of possession was very good, other than one or two moments.
“I trust everyone in the group, I believe in them. I genuinely don’t believe we have a strongest XI. To compete on all fronts, we want to win the league, we want to win the cup, and to win games in Europe you need everyone in the squad ready to play, and I believe we have that.”
Djurgardens coach Thomas Lagerlof was reasonably happy with a point.
“The performance was not that good, the result is okay. Coming away from this stadium with one point is okay. Rovers are very good here and they almost never lose here, and a point is an okay result. We started the game okay and then it was as if it got a bit easy and we got sloppy, and then they are in the game.
“The first 25 minutes of the second half is a disaster. I am not taking anything from them, they were creating chances and they were forcing us to make bad decisions. We were really struggling for a while, and the last 20 minutes were better.”
He also said his side should have had a penalty in the final minutes, when Andy Lyons tangled in the box with Haris Radetinac.
“We should have had a clear penalty, but we didn’t deserve anything more than we got today.”
