Keith Treacy: 'Poor' of the league not to delay Friday's Derry City v Shamrock Rovers game

Former Ireland, St Patrick's Athletic and Drogheda United midfielder Keith Treacy believes the SSE Airtricity League authorities should have pushed back Shamrock Rovers' fixture against Derry City.

Both sides met at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium on Friday in what proved to be a scoreless stalemate.

For Shamrock Rovers, it came in between two Europa League away trips.

Last Tuesday they beat KF Shkupi in North Macedonia to reach the play-off round - guaranteeing themselves the minimum of Europa Conference League group stage participation - and they play the first leg of that upcoming tie against Hungarian champions Ferencvaros in Budapest on Thursday.

The Hoops had sought to have the Derry City game in between pushed back by 24 hours from its Friday night slot, but manager Stephen Bradley expressed disappointment that the league did not acquiesce to that request.

"For some reason the league saw fit not to help us and I think that's really, really poor from the league and the people making the decisions and it needs to be looked at," Bradley said post-match on Friday.

Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Treacy felt that the fixture should have been delayed by a day to aid the continental progress of the sole Irish club remaining in European competition this season.

Gary Rogers and Keith Treacy discussed the LOI and Shamrock Rovers v Ferencvaros on this week's podcast above.

"The league should have stepped in and pushed it back," he said.

"I understand Derry's point of view. We all do. If you're in that Derry dressing room, you think you might be able to catch Shamrock Rovers coming to Derry a little bit tired and with sore legs. That's fair enough.

"The rest of us, the league, the people from the outside looking in, the neutral