Stephen Bradley: We looked back to our old selves against UCD

Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley felt his side looked back to their best as they got their SSE Airtricity League title defence off to a satisfactory start with a 3-0 win over newly-promoted UCD.

Sean Hoare and Danny Mandroiu scored late in the first half for the Hoops before Graham Burke added a third to seal a comfortable win at Tallaght Stadium.

Having been critical of his side's performance in the President's Cup win last week, Bradley was happy with what he saw from his Rovers side as he told RTÉ Sport at full-time.

"Delighted, I thought we'd looked back to ourselves for large parts of the game," he said.

"(We were) a little bit sloppy at the start and Alan (Mannus) made two really important saves and then we clicked into gear.

"At times we were very good and it could have been five or six in the end."

Bradley expects his side to improve in the coming weeks once the squad have had more competitive game-time.

"The more games we play, the sharper we'll get, the decision-making will become sharper and them chances I'm sure will go in. But tonight was a lot more like ourselves," he said.

One setback for Rovers was an injury to Neil Farrugia and the manager confirmed it was a hamstring issue for the wide-man.

"He felt his hamstring. It was the opposite side, it wasn't the one that's been causing him problems," he said.

"We're not sure how bad (it is). We'll have to see in the morning and get him scanned. Hopefully he'll get out just in time that it's not too bad.

"He's devastated as you can imagine. He's worked really, really hard, he's been brilliant in pre-season and he felt a little twinge in his other hamstring so we'll just have to see how it is during the week."

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