Stephen Bradley says that the shock of the ‘terrible’ President’s Cup performance against St Patrick’s Athletic forced him to bring defender Roberto Lopes back earlier than scheduled.
Rovers eased past UCD on Friday night with a 3-0 win thanks to goals from Seán Hoare, Danny Mandroiu and Graham Burke.
But the disappointing performance against the Saints seven days earlier prompted him to make three changes, including the return of the influential Crumlin man Lopes.
‘Pico’ has been on a delayed schedule in pre-season after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, where he played every game as Cape Verde reached the last 16.
Bradley had been hoping to ease the centre-half back in over the early weeks of the season but a disjointed effort against the Athletic two weeks ago changed his mind.
The Jobstown native was scathing of his side’s performance despite beating the Saints on penalties to seal a first-ever President’s Cup.
“I thought we were terrible and St Pat's should have been out of sight and three or four up,” Bradley said at the time.
“The game should have been over, maybe even at half-time. I thought we were really poor in every aspect and we got going in the last 15 minutes probably.”
Bradley insisted it was a ‘wake-up call’ and that prompted him to bring Lopes, debutant Andy Lyons and Rory Gaffney in for the visit of the Students.
The manager was pleased with a much-improved performance of his side but added that Lopes’ minutes will still have to be managed as he essentially had no off-season.
He said: “I didn't want Pico to be put in quite now but last week we weren't quite happy with certain things and I think you seen tonight what he brings to us.
“He just needs to be careful now with his load and how he trains over the next few weeks because it's been a bit of a different off-season for him.”
