Stephen Bradley: Shamrock Rovers proud of their European run and the League of Ireland should be proud as well

Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley lamented the "basic" defensive errors in the first half of his side's 5-1 defeat to Chelsea but stressed his pride in the team's overall Conference League campaign as their European season stretches into the new year.

Three wins and two draws in their five games before tonight had already assured the Hoops of a spot in the Conference League knockout phase, marking the first time a League of Ireland club had progressed beyond a league/group phase in European competition.

Though they were sixth in the league table before tonight, and thus inside the top-eight teams who progress automatically to the last-16, it was understood that they would surely not remain there after their daunting trip to Stamford Bridge.

While Markus Poom's drilled equalising goal sparked rapturous scenes among the 3,000 strong away crowd, Rovers were consistently undermined by defensive mishaps at the other end.

Spanish teenager Marc Guiu completed a first half hat-trick, the first two goals coming after misjudged back-passes from Darragh Burns and then Dan Cleary, either side of Poom's strike.

Bradley bemoaned the errors that led to Chelsea's first two goals, though he did note that a relative lack of competitive match practice in the off-season had impacted their sharpness.

"When you come to these places, you can't make basic mistakes and we did that tonight in the first half," Bradley told RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue after the game.

"We scored to make it 1-1 and you think 'Okay we're back in the game, where you wanted to be. And then we give them a basic goal. Against this level, they punish you.

"You saw tonight [that] we haven't played competitive football regularly in over a month. You could see the mental