Stephen Bradley believes that Shelbourne were deserved winners of the league title and admitted that his side just weren’t good enough to win if for the fifth time in a row.
Rovers were playing catch-up throughout a season in which they failed to fire until the latter stages, and while they remained in contention until the last game of the season, it was out of their hands heading into the Waterford encounter.
The Hoops needed to win to have a chance of knocking Shelbourne off top spot, and while they secured the three points in a highly entertaining 2-1 victory over Waterford at Tallaght Stadium, they ultimately had to settle for second as Damien Duff’s side got the win they required in Derry to secure the title.
“It’s disappointing,” said Bradley, speaking to RTE Sport after the game. “We’ve done our bit tonight, but it wasn’t enough. You’re always disappointed when you lose the league, and we’ve lost it tonight.
“If we’re been brutally honest, we weren’t good enough, that’s the simple facts, and we lost too many games, conceded too many goals.
“We fought our way back to a decider tonight but over the course of the season, we weren’t good enough.”
And while Bradley was disappointed to lose it on the final day of the season, he believes that the right team took the title.
“Shelbourne were good enough and a massive congratulations to Damien, his staff, and Shelbourne football club, well done.
“I think the league is improving year on year, and people like Damien only help that.”
Bradley said that he knows where his side went wrong during this campaign, coming off the back of the historic four in a row, however, he was reluctant to perform the post mortem at this juncture.
“We know what happened but now is not the time for that,” said Bradley. “Now is the time to congratulate Shelbourne, say well done, they deserve it, if you win a league, you deserve to win the league.
“We know where we went wrong but now is not the time for that.”
The finish of the league campaign, however, not the end of the season for Rovers who have four more games to negotiate in the UEFA Conference League as they look to become the first Irish team to make it through to the knock-out stages.
Rovers have opened their “league phase” campaign with a draw at home to APOEL and an impressive away win at Larne, and now Bradley’s side will take on TNS next week in an attempt to secure another victory, which could see them through to the next phase of the competition.
“We’re in a brilliant place now in terms of Europe with a chance to qualify, something that hasn’t been done before,” said Bradley.
“We just need to refocus after tonight and get ready for next week.”
