Stephen Bradley spoke to shamrockrovers.ie ahead of the Hoops start to European competition.

Kickoff in Gibraltar is at 1700 Irish Time. The matched will be streamed live on OneFootball TV

We made it safely through our FAI Cup game on Friday, beating Wexford FC 4-0. Getting in the hat for the next round is what it’s all about and we did that, so you must be happy to get through and score four goals with a clean sheet.

“Yes, we were really happy. I said on the night, Wexford were very good, you have to give credit to them and we feel that having reviewed the game. But our objective was to be in the next round and we’ve done that. We came through with no injuries and got good minutes into players too so it was a good night.”

Victor Ozhianvuna scored his first senior goal and what a goal it was. His post-match interview with SRFCTV really demonstrated just how young Victor is, but like Michael Noonan, is he playing beyond his young years?

“Victor is a special talent and I’ve been saying that for quite some time. We will see a lot more of that as time goes on. He’s a special talent, but more importantly, a special boy. His attitude is really high level stuff and like Michael, Victor has an elite mentality to the game which is so important if you want to be a football player, especially a young player. So many young players these days get sidetracked, but Victor is fully focussed which is brilliant. I loved his post-match interview, I loved the purity and innocence of it, it was so nice to see that. I thought he was excellent last Friday.”

Our attention now switches to the start of our Conference League campaign this week and next week. How much are you and the group looking forward to it, especially given last season’s incredible adventure?

“We’re really looking forward to it. We’ve obviously done really well in Europe in the last few years, with two group stages in the last three years. We want that again, time will tell if we can make that happen.  But if we want to make that happen, it starts tomorrow night. We’ll go there and fully respect St Joseph’s and our approach will be to win the game and help put ourselves in the next round.”

You must be happy too that you and the staff and players have a clear run at the two legs with no domestic games in between to worry about.

“That’s why you play those games early on, to give that little breather in between. It’s important when you take the travel into consideration, all that. But we’re well used to it by now and we’re really looking forward to it.”

St Joseph’s of Gibraltar defeated Cliftonville in extra time to win 5-4 on aggregate last week for the right to play us. You attended both legs. What did you make of them in terms of style, set-up and attributes?

“They play similar systems to ourselves. They’ve scored five goals over the two legs against Cliftonville so they know how to score goals. There’s no doubt they have some really dangerous players, you can see that and they have good quality in midfield and their front three are dangerous. We’ve watched them in real detail and they’ll be given the respect they deserve. To score five in two legs shows they know how to score goals.”

Having been at their home ground, what did you make of their pitch and the weather and atmosphere we should expect to face tomorrow night?

It’s an Astro turf pitch, the weather for the first leg was extremely hot, so all that will play into what type of game it is. But again, we’re an experienced team, we’ve been to so many places throughout the years and experienced every different type of scenario. I didn’t think we could experience anything like Celje’s pitch last season, but we did and we dealt with it, so whatever tomorrow throws up in terms of the pitch and conditions, we’ll be ready for.”

Leon Pöhls left Rovers last week to join Albanian club KF Vllaznia Shkodër. He wrote a classy and heartfelt post on Instagram. Leon was an excellent keeper during his time with us, particularly in our European run last season.

“Leon was brilliant, on and off the pitch. When you think back to the journey Leon has been on, we took him from a private academy in England, he’d only been playing in goal for fourteen months up to that point. He played against us here in a friendly and we took Leon after that so to see his development, where he had to be patient and learn from Alan Mannus, then to see his growth was brilliant. He was very very good for us last season, but as I said, more importantly off the pitch, Leon was excellent for us as a team, with the group, the group loved him, staff loved him. Just sometimes things happen, Leon’s personal situation needed a change and I felt it was right for us as a club to help Leon in that regard. I had really good conversations with Leon before and since he left, I told him he’s always part of the Rovers family and will always be welcome back here and I’m sure we’ll see him back at some point. But we wish Leon all the luck in the world, personally and professionally, because he represented this club on and off the pitch in the way it should be. So, a massive thank you to Leon, he’s one of us and always will be.”

How did everyone emerge from the Wexford game and how are Adam Matthews, Aaron Greene and Trevor Clarke?

“Everyone is good. All three are back and trained this week so we’ve no injuries in the squad, which is great.”