Copyright derryjournal
The Shamrock Rovers boss was out on his feet after running the Dublin Marathon in an impressive 3:57:37 alongside his assistant Glenn Cronin but still managed to make his team's league clash against Derry after a 'bumpy' 50 minute helicopter journey from Dublin Weston Airport. They landed at City of Derry Rugby Club's ground at Judges Road before embarking on a white knuckle taxi ride to the Lone Moor Road Stadium and arrived eight minutes into the encounter with the scores level at 0-0. He was hoping to crown a memorable day by sealing a fifth league title win in six years but goals from Brandon Fleming and Sadou Diallo earned Derry a rare win over their Dublin rivals who must wait until Wednesday for another chance to clinch that elusive point at home to Galway. Despite the frustrations of a third domestic loss on the spin Bradley was taken aback by the support from the Brandywell stands as Derry fans sang his son's name who was recently given the all-clear after a three year battle with Leukemia. Bradley ran the marathon to raise funds for Oscar's Kids charity who had helped his son Josh during his illness. “I thought the Derry City fans over here and here [pointing to the Southend Park and Mark Farren Stands] were a different class," said Bradley after the 2-1 loss. "They showed real class. "They celebrate their win, which you’d expect them to, but I’d like to thank them for singing Josh’s name. The people were brilliant. I think they appreciate that we’ve run for a brilliant charity that helps sick kids and families. So that was a touch of class and I’d like to say thanks to them.” It was a marathon day which began with breakfast at 6.30am for Bradley and Cronin who was running for his own daughter Aoife who was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma which was caught early and successfully removed. The marathon was off at 8:45am and almost four hours later they crossed the finish line, quickly changed and made their way to the airport to head to Derry. “Tired, really tired," answered Bradley when asked how his legs were feeling at the final whistle. "What was it? 3:57, we broke the four, that was the aim. "I did one 10 years ago or so, when my mam passed, and I thought naively that I’d be fine, I’ve played, I’ll be fine. But it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. "So when we committed to this charity it was about, right, we need to do this properly. And as it went on and this game got changed to Sunday at three o’clock we had to go under four. There was no other way of doing it. "Even in the last 10k, we were cramping up, but Glenn said, ‘We have to do four, you have to keep running’. "So we got there and we’ve raised a lot of money for an incredible charity. When you are in it, in the heat of it, you see how important these charities are, and how special they can make moments for families in the hardest of times. "We saw Oscar’s Kids, the mother and father, today supporting us. I think we’ve raised nearly €50,000. So that will help the kids and families. It was something we were always going to do and had to do." The 42kms race may have been the hardest thing he's done but the helicopter trip in the blustery and wet conditions certainly wasn't far behind it. “We were up at half-six this morning to get our breakfast. We stayed in a hotel in town last night. We started at a quarter-to-nine, did it and got to the airport. The pilot said we’d have to delay it and I thought he was winding me up because he knew I was nervous. “We got up and the pilot said it was going to get bumpy coming over the mountains, because of the wind, and I thought it was already bumpy. The wind came and it was a bit touch and go. "We had permission to land in there [points to greyhound track], in fairness to Derry, but the PSNI wouldn’t allow it, they had a drone monitoring the game. So we landed [at Judges Road] and got here. It’s been a long day.” With the 3pm kick-off time fast approaching, a local taxi man did his best to get the Rovers management team to the Brandywell. “There was a taxi waiting for us and, to be fair, the taxi driver must have been a getaway driver before - he got us here in about two minutes," he laughed. "I said to him, ‘Break every red light’, and he said, ‘You don’t have to worry about that'," he joked. "He was gone. So he was great craic, a good fellow, he got us here really quick.” Bradley has always maintained the league title race is a marathon not a sprint but his players must go that extra mile after falling to defeat against Derry. It was a third successive league loss for the champions elect but while Bradley may need some much earned respite after his marathon heroics, the Dubliner insists his team has the mental and physical capacity to get their title race over the line with two games to go. "We're well used to that (hectic schedule) we're a team that has been doing this for a long time. Thursday, Sunday, travel, being successful, it's not something that it's 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 like I said, I understand results and people will react to it but if you watch performance, it's nothing to do with that. "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 one was a bit disjointed. But other than that, it's just happened in the last couple of weeks." “With just a point needed to capture the title, Bradley insists their approach to Wednesday's game won't change. "We're going to win the game, 100 per cent. We won't be thinking of anything else and the reason is because we 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."
