Stephen Bradley - A lot of players think we can pay crazy money

Stephen Bradley doesn't expect to see many comings and goings over the summer at Shamrock Rovers despite an inconsistent start to the season.

The Hoops have lost as many games as they've won this season – eight – and sit fifth in the table while topping the bad boys' list with six red cards in 18 games.

Striker Graham Burke received his second sending-off of the season during Friday's 1-1 draw at home to St Patrick's Athletic, which will see him miss at least three games.

And midfielder Paul Corry – who has managed just 16 minutes in the league since signing over Christmas – is out for a foreseeable future with a recurrence of a long-term knee cartilage injury.

“We spoke to a lot of players at Christmas and a lot of them thought we were onto crazy money,” Bradley said as the league halted for a two-week midseason break.

“It has to come within what we can afford to pay and it has to improve the squad. If something comes up, we'll look at it.

“We're always looking to improve the squad. But it has to come within what we see as our budget.”

Bradley revealed that Corry has suffered a setback in his bid to return from a troublesome knee problem that's seen him miss the bulk of the last two years.

Corry had opted against a surgical option earlier this year when he tore his meniscus, instead having a lubricant inserted, but he suffered another setback and will return to see a specialist in London.

“Paul's going to fly over to the surgeon in London again and see where we are with his knee. He was offered surgery but he got different treatment.

“It helped him for maybe ten days and the knee gave way again. We'll have to go back over to the surgeon and see what the next step is.”

Bradley has identified the disciplinary situation as the team's biggest issue that needs to be addressed (“we have to sit down as a group and make it right”) but inconcistency is as big an issue.

Rovers took an early lead against Pats that rarely looked threatened during the first half, but their intensity dropped and they allowed the struggling Saints to dominate the final 50 minutes. 

Christy Fagan struck ten minutes into the second half to cancel out Burke's opener, and Liam Buckley's side had enough to chances to be disappointed with only a point.

Burke received his marching orders while Bradley was preparing Michael O'Connor to take his place.

“We didn't finish the game off in the first half, and in the second half we were flat and conceded a bad goal from our point of view. We let them back in the game.

“We stopped playing our football and stopped pressing them. If you do that to teams, you're obviously going to concede the game to them and that's exactly what happened.

For Bradley, that drop is partly down to playing three games in eight days as they brought forward July's game with Bray to last Tuesday in order to avoid a clash with their Europa League schedule.

The Tallaght man decided to stick with Ryan Connolly, who has recently returned from an injury of his own, from the side that beat Bray rather than restore David McAllister after his return from suspension.

“Ryan's only back and he's played a few games in a short period of time. We needed to look at that and we didn't, and second half we were flat.

“I've been in that position and when you're playing well you want to play every game. That was it. Ryan's been playing really well and he was just given his head and let play.”