Stephen Bradley's scathing reaction to red card and performance as Shamrock Rovers suffer Champions League defeat
The League of Ireland champions are two-down ahead of next week’s second-leg in Tallaght.
Stephen Bradley has described Matt Healy’s Champions League red card as “a really poor one” - as Shamrock Rovers face an uphill battle to remain in Europe’s top competition.
Healy was shown two yellow cards inside just over a minute away to Maltese side Floriana.
Rovers were one-down at the time when Healy was sent for an early shower, just shy of the hour mark.
Speaking afterwards, Bradley said: “It’s a really poor one from an experienced player and a top player. He’s booked literally two minutes beforehand and it’s very unlike Matt.
“He made two poor decisions very quickly and got sent off, but there was a lot more than that.”
Bradley was equally scathing of Rovers’ display, stating: “I thought we were poor, I thought we were sloppy in every regard.
“We had got control but we were sloppy with that control. We know we’ve got to be better than that and we weren’t and we got punished.
“We know we have to be better. We’re in a place where, obviously, we don’t want to be, in terms of being 2-0 down.
“We weren’t good enough and, to be fair to them, I think they deserved to win, we weren’t good enough.”
He refused to use issues such as the heat as an excuse for Rovers’ performance, and warned that they would have to improve significantly next Tuesday in Tallaght.
“It wasn’t the heat. It wasn’t that bad,” he said. “It was obviously really hot today, but there was a wind when we were playing. The sun was maybe up for 20 or 25 minutes.
“It’s definitely not the heat element. We had control of the game but we were sloppy with that control.
“And when you are sloppy in any game, but especially when you have got control and you are playing against a team that like to play in transition, like they do, you are leaving yourself open.
“That’s exactly what happened and we got punished. Definitely no excuses regarding the weather.”
Asked if he believed that there was room for improvement next week, he said: “We know there is. We’ve seen that time and time again.
“But if we want to have a chance of going through we have to produce that.
“But we are just frustrated with it now, because the game was there to be dictated and controlled, like we had, and we didn’t capitalise on it.
“If anything we allowed them to breathe and grow because of our sloppiness. Look, it’s definitely half-time and we know we can perform a lot better than that.”
