Stephen Bradley rued his side's missed opportunities as the Irish champions were beaten 2-0 by Sparta Prague in tonight’s Champions League qualification clash at Tallaght Stadium.
The Hoops had chances to punish the visitors at either end of this exciting contest, and most notably when the game was in the balance early on as Neil Farrugia could have handed the hosts an early lead.
However, it was the visitors who proved most clinical and now the renowned Czech side take a two-goal advantage into next Tuesday’s second leg in Prague.
Rovers were undone in the 38th minute when they gifted their opponents the crucial opening goal as a result of some poor decision-making inside their own penalty area, which led to Veljko Birmancevic slamming the ball home.
The home side had fared well up to that point in the 38th minute, restricting Sparta to mere glimpses at goal, and while they were defending deep, they appeared in control against the powerful attacking unit of their esteemed visitors.
Symptomatic of their season thus far, perhaps, for the Hoops, who are struggling to retain their league title, sitting 13 points off league leaders Shelbourne with 13 games remaining.
And Rovers had to handle a sustained spell at the start of the second half to keep the deficit to the minimum as Bradley’s side looked to then start building momentum heading into the final 25 minutes.
But then the Hoops were hit by a sucker punch, as the visitors went the full length of the pitch in the 65th minute, before Tomas Wiesner arrived at the back post to double Sparta’s lead.
Rovers had two great chances to reduce the gap in injury time, however, Josh Honahan was denied at the death, leaving Rovers two goals adrift heading into next Tuesday’s Prague outing.
"When you play against this level of team, you know when you get the opportunities, you have to take them," said Bradley, speaking at the post match press conference. "Because it is fine margins and you know when they get their opportunities, there is a high chance they’ll take them.
"So if Neil’s chance goes in, it’s a different game, and then we had two at the end as well. Yeah, fine margins, you need to score those opportunities.
"The keeper makes a great save off the header and the second one, he didn’t see it.
"But goals change games, they change momentum and we just couldn’t take our opportunities."
Despite the calamitous optics of the opening goal, Bradley was not too critical of his side for attempting to play out from the back, and believes that it comes with the territory of playing through the lines.
However, he was more disappointed that his side failed to clear their lines when presented with an opportunity after the initial effort was saved and subsequently cleared off the line before the goal was finally scored.
"It was actually really good play; if Dylan (Watts) turns, we’re out, but he plays it blind," said Bradley.
"We know how they press, it’s really good and they score a lot of goals in transition; the play was good, it was just the last decision that wasn’t.
"But I’m not going to have a go at Dylan, because nine times out of ten he gets us out of those situations, and we penetrate and get at them.
"And we had time to clear it after he took the shot, but we were very rash and we passed it straight back to them, which is the disappointing bit.
"The build up and giving it away is fine, when you play like that, at times you’re going to give it away, and that’s the way we play."
Bradley is remaining positive ahead of next week’s uphill battle to force their way back into the tie, and believes that more opportunities will present themselves in the second leg.
"We have a look at the game back, and see what worked and what didn’t, and our aim next week is to try to score the first goal, and if we do that, anything can happen," said the Hoops boss.
"If you’re set up right, and have patience, you’ll always get opportunities, but when we do get opportunities, we have to take them."
"We’ll go with the mindset of getting the first goal, and if we do that, anything is possible."
Neil Farrugia was one of Rovers' standout players for the time spent on the pitch, and aside from the glorious chance to hand his side the lead, he impressed with a string of powerful forward runs in a commanding midfield display.
The Ireland Under-21 international came off in the 63rd minute, however, it was precautionary as Farrugia is still working his way back to full fitness.
And Bradley appeared upbeat about the potential squad to choose from for next week’s game with the talismanic Graham Burke also set to be fully fit to travel to Prague.
"Because he is only back the last few weeks, we have just been trying to build him up; I think he got 63 minutes today, which is good," said Bradley, regarding Farrugia.
"He feels fine, he’s an explosive player and his numbers were really high.
"Johnny (Kenny) got a nick so we’ll have to assess him in the morning to see how he is, but everyone else is fine.
"I think we’ll have Graham (Burke) and Aaron Mac (McEneff) back so those two should be available, and I think that leaves only Rory (Gaffney) out, which is the first time in a long time we’ve had that.
"And we know Graham in Europe, he creates and scores goals, and it’s always nice to have those options, and he’ll be an option for us next Tuesday."
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