Shamrock Rovers’ goal hero Kieran Marty Waters said his side hope they can kick on from their victory over Progrès Niederkorn to reach the group stages of the Europa League.
Waters bagged a brace, and defender Dave Webster got his first goal for Rovers in a comprehensive 3-0 second-leg win.
That meant the Hoops won 3-0 on aggregate and will now play in the second round of qualification, likely against Odd Ballklubb of Norway.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game, Waters said it was “brilliant” to have secured the victory, and that Rovers’ good start to each half had been significant.
“From the first minute, we worked hard,” Waters said. “We came out in the second half and we started well, which had been our downfall in the last two or three games. But we started both halves well, and we were well on top. We got the result we wanted.”
Waters hailed the pass from Mikey Drennan, who set him up for his second goal at the end of some good passing from Rovers.
“Mikey, unselfish. I’d say any striker would have fancied hitting it. He’s seen me coming out of the corner of his eye and he rolled it to me and it was just a tap-in. So credit to him; it would have been harder to miss.”
Waters said the team will try to emulate the performance of 2011, when Rovers went on to reach the group stages of the competition.
“It would be amazing, from going from watching some of the games to playing some of the games. But we’ll take the next games as they come. We’ll see how we can do.”
Rovers have no time to rest on their laurels: the second round of qualification starts next week. Waters said: “You have no time to think, so we’re straight into training, and we’ll hopefully, hopefully, get a result over there.”
