Stephen Bradley has hailed Sunday as a "special day" despite his side's third loss in a row in the Premier Division. This time it is a 2-1 defeat to Derry City at the Ryan McBride Brandywell, which has added another wait for their title celebrations.
It was a weather delayed helicopter ride - not his sub four-hour finish in the 44th Dublin marathon - that kept Bradley from the Brandywell, which he says had no impact on the outcome.
"If you're a manager and you're doing preparations on the day of the game, you're in trouble. All your work is done during the week," he told RTÉ Sport.
"I think the players were different class in the first half so I think it was quite great to see it didn't affect them in any way."
Stephen Bradley spoke to RTÉ after completing the Dublin marathon. The Shamrock Rovers manager and his assistant coach Glenn Cronin ran to raise money for Oscar's Kids. The pair had written the names of their respective children who had both suffered from cancer on their arms. pic.twitter.com/BuI3Camamc
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 26, 2025
Bradley was running the marathon, along with his assistant coach, Glenn Cronin to raise money for Oscar's Kids, a childhood cancer charity.
Both the Bradley and Cronin families have been affected by cancer and the pair ran with the names of their respective children, who have received successful treatment.
The Dublin native explained that the changes to the schedule caused some challenges but there was no chance of him changing his plans.
"Today's a special day... We committed to that charity quite some time back and with the game getting changed and getting moved early, we weren't going to change because we know how much that money means to that charity and how many kids and families that will help."
"So there was nothing going to stop us doing that today and thankfully we've raised a lot of money and hopefully that will help some sick kids and families up and down the country."
He also revealed that a request to delay the kick-off was refused and reiterated that the players' performance wasn't affected by his late arrival.
"We obviously asked for that and wanted that but it didn't happen. We don't control that. There's nothing we can do but when we committed to it, this game was obviously not on a Sunday afternoon so it is what it is.
"Like I said, it definitely didn't affect the players' performance and we raised a lot of money for a really, really important charity for me."
Rovers' Graham Burke had the first chance in the Brandywell within seven minutes, before Bradley arrived, but was denied by a diving Brian Maher.
Bradley felt that his side were "excellent" in the opening 45 minutes but allowed Derry to get on top in the second half, which he says was disappointing.
"I thought first half we were excellent, like really high-level stuff.
"Keeper makes a brilliant save off Graham and then we've got a couple in on the box that just holds up on the pitch but our play was really high level, really controlled the game.
"Then the second half, Derry got on top and then we obviously got the man sent off and I was disappointed with the goal we gave away, disappointed with the mistake.
"The first one is a cross and it ends up in the back of the net but the second one is poor from us and there are the little bits that are going against us."
This is the third time that Rovers have failed to secure the win that would give them the league title but Bradley says he isn't focused on lifting the trophy.
"Forget all of that. It's the little, like I said, we need to focus on what we've been good at and what we need to improve on."
Shamrock Rovers will face Galway on Wednesday, where all they need is a draw to wrap up their league season as guaranteed table toppers.
"We'll move on to Galway. We've lost the last three in the league, which is very unlike us and it's something that doesn't sit well with us, something we don't like and we have a chance on Wednesday to try and put that right and that'll be our aim."
