Stephen Bradley reveals belief in Shamrock Rovers nascent star Michael Noonan

The exuberance of youth – and one youth in particular – appeared to have rubbed off on ebullient Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley when he reflected on his side's fantastic 1-0 win over Molde in Norway in the first leg of their UEFA Conference League knockout tie.

Prior to kick-off at the Aker Stadion, many fans would have been unfamiliar with Michael Noonan, or at least the football incarnation of the name.

But in the 57th minute of the contest, the forward rewrote the record books as he became the youngest player to score in a European club competition at 16 years and 197 days old on his senior debut.

The only person who may have seen that coming was the Shamrock Rovers boss, who said of his decision to include Rovers' newest boy wonder in the starting line-up: "I made the decision probably two weeks ago after watching him up close in training.

"You get a feeling. You understand where the player is and you get a feeling of what the dressing room is feeling, in terms of that level of respect, and you have to earn that as a young boy and you could see very quickly that Michael had that.

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"We played games in training, and he was against Pico [Lopes] and Lee [Grace] – top centre-backs – and he was causing them real problems.

"You can tell this boy is ready, so I made the decision very early to play him.

"I didn't tell him until late because I didn't want it playing on his mind, but he's the type to just deal with it. He was excellent.

"If you've watched him, which I