'Biggest club in the competition' - Shamrock Rovers relishing December  trip to Chelsea 

hamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley after the UEFA Europa League play-off second leg match against PAOK. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Stephen Bradley admits their Uefa Conference League next phase has given them a bit of everything – including the standout visit to Stamford Bridge.

While branding the trip to Chelsea as glamour, he’s denoted other matches in the six-match series as winnable to bolster their progression prospects.

Only nine of the 36 participants in Uefa’s reformatted “League phase” are eliminated when this middle segment, contested between October 3 and December 16, concludes.

Unlike the previous groups, qualifiers for the phase face six different teams, three home and away.

As well as their visit to London, the four-in-row Irish champions make the journey to Vienna for a meeting with SK Rapid, previously known as Rapid Vienna, and a shorter trip by road to meet Northern Ireland champions Larne at Windsor Park.

The Hoops will also welcome to Tallaght Cypriot champions APOEL from Nicosia – where their playmaker Jack Byrne spent an injury-disrupted 2020 – along with other home games against Borac from Bosnia Herzegovina and Welsh outfit New Saints.

Their sequence of Thursday night fixtures sees Rovers open their series at home to APOEL on October 3.

Their short hop the M1 trip on October 24 to meet Larne and a home clash with Welsh outfit The New Saints on November 7 (both 6.45pm) present winnable matches.

The second half of the section, all 8pm kick offs, begins with a trip to face SK Rapid in Vienna on November 28 before they host FK Borac in Tallaght and trek to Stamford Bridge on December 19.

Bradley said: “I think it’s a brilliant draw. It’s a mixture of everything, we have the glamour ties with Chelsea and Rapid, we also have games I feel will be winnable, so it will be really competitive and has given us a mixture of everything. So it’s a really exciting time in front of us.

“In Chelsea, we're playing one of the biggest clubs in the world. Without being disrespectful to anyone else, Chelsea are probably the biggest club in the competition.” 

Bradley was part of the Rovers team that won the 2010 league to ultimately send them on their way to the Europa League breakthrough. That included a visit to White Hart Lane for a match they took the lead before eventually losing 3-1 to Tottenham Hotspur.

“It’s great we have this game for the fans who deserve a game like that,” added Bradley.

“We were gutted when we played AC Milan (in 2020) and we couldn’t have our fans there to witness it (due to Covid-19).

“I’m sure we’ll have huge support in London for the Chelsea game, I’m delighted for the fans more so than anyone else.” 

Rovers parachuted into the Conference League by losing their Europa League playoff to a stellar PAOK side last week. They resume their league campaign on Sunday at Dalymount Park, the unusual 11.30pm kick-off a consequence of policing resources allocated to the Coldplay concert at nearby Croke Park.

“There are different ways you can play against a strong PAOK team in transition but it was also for what’s coming down the road in the Conference games by trying those things in the second leg,” he summarised about Thursday’s 2-0 loss at Tallaght.

“We could see when it didn’t work and when it did. Learning from that for what’s ahead of us. I realise we were running the risk with how strong PAOK are in transition but it was great to face that level of opposition and learn from that going forward.” 

Bohemians prevailed in the last derby, an FAI Cup second tie after winning their Champions League opener.

“We didn’t perform at all in the FAI cup game after beating Vikingur - we let ourselves down,” he said.

“We know we can’t go in like that on Sunday, we need to make sure we show up ready to play.

"If we do that we’ll be okay. It can’t be a repeat of what happened a few weeks ago.”