Bradley would be a hit at any club – O’Neill
AS Shamrock Rovers circle the wagons on the future of manager Stephen Bradley, St Patrick’s Athletic striker Eoin Doyle believes Bradley ‘will be a success’ if talks with Lincoln City over the vacancy at the League One club lead to white smoke.
‘From a job perspective, if Stephen wants to have a crack at it, I’d go for it, if I was him,’ said Doyle, who experienced four seasons in League One at Chesterfield (2014/15), Oldham (2017/18), Bradford City (2018/19) and Bolton Wanderers (2021/22).
‘It’s a really good league. You have League One clubs who were in the Premier League like, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Bolton, Sheffield Wednesday, and now Derby are coming down,’ observed Doyle.
‘The intensity of it is huge. You’ve 46 league games and throw in the cups you are playing 56 games... you need big squads.
‘I found League One was stronger than when I played in it before. When I first played there I jumped from League Two, and I did it again this year with Bolton, but the jump was much bigger the second time.’
The paths of Doyle and Bradley took different routes from the time the former replaced the latter as a substitute in Rovers’ first game in Tallaght in March, 2009.
Doyle, who also played under such top managers as Michael O’Neill, Paul Cook and Pat Fenlon, who were all employed across the Irish Sea after success in the League of Ireland, has been impressed by Bradley’s body of work since taking over at Rovers at the end of 2016.
‘Stephen has done a great job over the last few years,’ he said.
‘Rovers are back-to-back champions and were very close to getting into Europe (group stages) last year with some very big games against the likes of AC Milan in Tallaght.
‘It’s no surprise (the Lincoln interest). He has built that up from tough times to the club that everyone wants to be now at the minute. I have no doubt that if he goes over he will be a success.’
Lincoln City, who play at a 10,000-capacity stadium and were non-league as recently as 2017, finished fifth in League One in 2021 before falling back this season to 17th.
‘I played against them (Lincoln) this year and to be fair it’s a team that will suit him (Bradley), if he goes,’ said Doyle. ‘They were just missing one or two players in key areas to bump them up. They play a good style of football and it wouldn’t take him long to put his mark on it, if he goes in.’
Bradley takes charge of Rovers this evening at home to Finn Harps amid speculation that he and his No 2 Glenn Cronin are set for a new challenge in the third tier of English football — should that happen, the top job in Irish club management would be available. As for Doyle, he served for 10 years in the trenches of the Championship, League One, League Two and the Scottish Premier League before returning to his native Dublin in January. ‘I did my time there,’ he said. Now, it’s full steam ahead with the Saints where Doyle has scored five goals in 14 appearances, four in the Premier Division. ‘I’d like to have a few more goals,’ he said. ‘But it’s still early in the season and it’s a new team and we’re learning how each other plays. I know I’m judged on goals and hopefully I can grab a few more in the coming weeks.’
The Saints were shocking at home to Derry last week and need to bounce back this weekend, away to Drogheda this evening before a snap return against Derry on Monday in a game brought forward to help clubs competing in Europe.
Of the 4-0 loss to the Premier Division leaders, Doyle admitted, ‘It was a bad old night at the office.’
‘Derry slapped us last Friday so it’s a quick turnaround (to play theme again). We need to get a good result tomorrow night and then go up there.’
Doyle was at Abbotstown yesterday where the League of Ireland announced Buy4Pets Online as an associate partner of the league and the first primary partner of The LOI Show