Stephen Bradley says 'that's his problem' after row erupts with SK Rapid manager in Vienna
Johnny Kenny fired Shamrock Rovers towards the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League
Stephen Bradley hailed his Shamrock Rovers team after their heroic 1-1 draw in Vienna and declared: ‘Never question their character’.
But SK Rapid accused the Hoops of bad sportsmanship after a heated row broke out between the two dugouts at full-time.
Johnny Kenny fired the equalising goal that will see Rovers make history by competing in the knockout stages in February.
Asked if it was the biggest European result secured under his watch, Bradley said: “It's not the best one, but it’s up there, considering we finished our season three weeks ago.
“We've got a lot of injured bodies too and you can see that with lads sitting up in the stands. But it’s definitely an important result.
“Over the years we have played some really big clubs in Europe like Sparta Prague, PAOK and AC Milan and you could see that helped us. We were nice and calm when they scored and didn’t let the game get away from us after conceding which was pleasing.”
But Rapid were fuming in the final stages of the game when a second ball was thrown onto the pitch by a member of the extended Rovers squad.
Manager Robert Klauß hit out at Bradley, claiming he and his coaching staff could have easily stopped the ball entering the pitch, but stepped back to allow it run on.
“It was a sub from Rovers and the coaching staff just let the ball through rather than keep the ball,” blasted Klauß. “It’s not fair, it’s not sportsmanship, it just delays the game but that’s okay and that’s fine.”
But asked about it, Bradley said: “That’s his problem. It’s not the head coach’s job to stop balls coming on the pitch.”
This result was all the more remarkable considering Rovers' league season finished a month ago, but they served it up to SK Rapid with a second-half show of strength.
And Bradley feels his players have shown character in how they have bounced back from the disappointment of missing out on the League of Ireland title.
“We understand why we didn't win the league,” he said. “We have reviewed it as a staff and the players will get that information in January.
“We understand why we came up short, it’s not like us and we won’t let it happen again, but you can never question the ability and character of these players. There’s no doubt we would show up. Our only worry was that we had not played a competitive game in three weeks.”
Bradley continued: “I’m really disappointed with the goal we gave away as it’s very unlike us, and we were a little tentative in the first-half. But we showed a lot more personality in the second half and the goal shows what we’re about, winning it on the edge of our box and playing through the press.”
And Bradley helped Celtic loan star Kenny who delivered again on the European stage, adding: “One of his biggest strengths is he has no fear of missing.
“A centre forward has to have that because you’re going to miss chances, but he has a really high ceiling and he’s still developing and going in the right direction. There were times tonight when they couldn’t handle him.”
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