Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley is hoping his side can turn Tallaght Stadium into a fortress this season after his side beat fierce rivals Bohemians at the Dublin ground last night.
Second half goals from Brandon Miele and Michael O’Connor put the Hoops in charge against the Gypsies but they did have to survive a late scare as Georgie Poynton converted an injury-time penalty for Bohs to ensure a tense finish.
A crowd of 5,220 turned out for the Dublin derby in treacherous conditions and Bradley is hoping that such support can give the Hoops the edge this season.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, the Rovers boss said: “It was a great atmosphere and the fans have been brilliant. I haven’t seen Tallaght Stadium like that for four or five years so it was brilliant.
“We need to go and win next week and if we do that and the fans come out, this place becomes a fortress and teams won’t want to come here and play us.
“I think what you saw there tonight, that’s going to be typical of a lot of games because obviously with what’s happening with three teams going down. A lot of games are going to be really, really tight.”
Bradley will hope that his side won’t have to play on such a heavy pitch too often this season, but admitted that he was happy to see the game go ahead despite the conditions.
Referee Robert Harvey held a pitch inspection two hours before kick-off, but gave the game the green light after deeming the pitch despite concerns over the quality of the playing surface.
“The pitch was a real leveller but considering all that I thought we did created more than enough chances to win the game, which we did,” he said.
“After losing last week you want the game to go ahead. I was thinking it would be called off and we’d be waiting for Derry, I wanted a game so the lads could get that out of their system.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be a pretty football game at times but I was delighted we had a chance to go and win a game.
“It probably looked bad from the stands but the pitch was terrible. We tried to play some sort of football but it wasn’t working so we had to go back to front early.”
