Copyright irishmirror
Stephen Bradley says he is a bad loser - and a hat-trick of Premier Division defeats is all the motivation he and his players need to finish the job on Wednesday. Shamrock Rovers are in unfamiliar territory right now, with three consecutive losses delaying their inevitable crowning as League of Ireland champions for the fifth time in six years. A title that could have been wrapped up a month ago can now be secured in front of a home crowd against a Galway United side still in danger of dropping into the relegation play-off spot. And Bradley will use the hurt felt after recent defeats to Shelbourne , St Patrick’s Athletic and, last Sunday, Derry City to push his players over the line. “We're going to win the game, 100 percent,” he said ahead of the visit of John Caulfield’s side. “We won't be thinking of anything else and the reason is because we’ve lost three. We don't like losing. We're not used to it. Forget everything else around it. “We need to win games because that's what we do, normally, and that will be the aim on Wednesday, to go and win the game.” Take Europe into account and Shamrock Rovers have lost five of their last six games in all competitions since the 2-1 win against Bohemians late last month all but wrapped up the title. Despite their recent run, Bradley is refusing to panic. And he has dismissed the idea that his players are suffering from fatigue, given their schedule both in domestic and European competition. The Galway game will be their seventh in October, compared to four the previous month. But the Hoops boss insisted: “We're well used to that, we're a team that is doing this for a long time - Thursday, Sunday, travel, being successful. It's not our first year; we've been winning leagues and competing in Europe for a long time. You get so comfortable with it and understand it. “But I understand the results and people will react to it but if you watch the performances, it's nothing to do with [fatigue]. It's not fatigue or anything like that, it's the small things that have gone against us. Sometimes that happens at some point in the season. “The Shels game was a bit disjointed. But other than that, it's just happened in the last couple of weeks.” Rovers played a back-game against Shels while all other sides rested during the recent international break - and they were without several key players, including defenders Pico Lopes, Lee Grace and Josh Honohan. “That international one, the Shels one, was a tough one because we were so disjointed,” said Bradley. “But no one can look at that first half [against Derry City on Sunday] and tell me the players looked off. They were different class and it was really high level stuff. You could see the frustration with Derry players talking to the bench out of frustration. “It was just the little bits. [Brandon] Fleming's cross ends up in the back of the net. Lee [Grace], we were just about to take him off and he gets a second yellow and Pico makes a silly challenge [for Derry’s second goal], but the players are fine. “They're disappointed in losing the game. We've lost three domestically which is very unlike us. We have another chance on Wednesday. The small bits are going against us right now but sometimes that's just the way it goes.” He added: “We've lost the game. We're not standing here saying everything is okay - we've lost games. “We're not used to losing games. We don't like losing games. So there’s stuff we have to put right as staff, players, everyone together. But what we came here and did in the first half after Thursday [defeat to Celje in the Conference League] in terms of our play, workrate, all of that was there. “It's just the small bits right now that are hurting us. We have to tidy up on that and we will.”
