Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley watched his improving side ease past Cork City in front of Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson on Monday night, and swiftly set his sights on Friday's massive showdown against St Pat's.
Bradley made six changes to his team but there were no hiccups in Tallaght: Aaron Greene, Josh Honohan, Roberto Lopes and Jack Byrne (on his first start of the season) found the net in a comfortable 4-1 win.
February's fallout with Hallgrimsson is water under the bridge now as far as Bradley is concerned. Then, he was unimpressed with the Icelander's suggestion that Shamrock Rovers players could use their run in the Conference League for "career change from this success". Hallgrimsson later clarified his comments, insisting he hadn't meant to imply players needed to leave the League of Ireland to play for the national team.
"I think it is important for the national team manager to take in league games," Bradley told RTÉ Sport last night.
"I'm sure he saw things he liked, things he didn't like. But yeah I do think it's important the national team manager and staff show an interest in the league and go to games, which I know has happened in the past and I don't see any reason why that shouldn't be the case now and going forward."
As for Shamrock Rovers' performance, Bradley was satisfied. A fifth victory in six games moved them level on points with second-placed St Pat’s ahead of a big clash at Richmond Park.
"It was a good night," said Bradley. "We scored four and possibly could have scored more.
"Overall, with the changes we made to the team, six of them, I thought the players that came in were excellent. We couldn't have asked for any more from the group.
"We were rushing back players from injuries this time last year, we were playing players too many minutes and as a result we had a lot of injuries. We're in the position now where we've got a healthy squad and it's important we use it. We want fierce competition for places, we want people ready to play, and that's where the group is at the moment.
"It should be a good game [against the Saints]. Dublin derby, two good teams. We know it will be a tough game, but we're in a really good place going there and we go there to win the game.
"We’re definitely going in the right direction. We’d like a few more points on the board, but we will keep pushing and there is a lot more to come from this team."
"It's easy to get players motivated. They're playing for a massive club." - Tim Clancy
Meanwhile Cork City boss Tim Clancy was frustrated with untimely lapses in concentration that cost the visitors dear.
Second-from-bottom Cork have been hurt by injuries but Clancy refused to use that as an excuse.
"We can't be looking at players that are missing, they're not available, so we have to deal with what we have and what we had tonight, we can do far better," he said.
"We have to have a better desire to stop conceding poor goals. That's the last two games now, Friday-Monday, where we've conceded late in the half and then to compound it we've conceded in (first-half) injury-time to more or less put the game beyond us. It's just not good enough.
"We've lost three on the spin now, which is not what we're about. It's easy to get players motivated. They're playing for a massive club. They shouldn't be sitting there feeling sorry for themselves. They should be delighted to be playing for a club, and honoured, the size of Cork City.
"This club demands results. The only way to get out of that is by working harder than the opposition, physically being stronger and outfighting people before you start talking about football.
"They're the controllables. If you don't do them you can't be expecting to get results and you certainly won't expect to play in my team."
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