AS LONG AS WE'RE No.1

Bradley relishes challenge of keeping Rovers at the top

- BY GARRY DOYLE

AT Shamrock Rovers, the numbers have always mattered.

From the six-in-a-row team of the Sixties to their four-in-a-row sequel in the 1980s, history is littered with evidence that Rovers are a club defined by records.

Tonight, they could win a fifth League of Ireland title in six years.

Those numbers aren't abstract. Walk the corridor to the players tunnel at Tallaght Stadium and youill see it all etched in history ~ 21 league titles, 25 FAI Cups.

A haul more than any other Irish club has ever managed.

And now, under Stephen Bradley, the Hoops are nudging closer to the first league and cup double of his tenure but the secret isn't revolution, it's evolution.

Consider the starting point of this golden era, the 2019 FAI Cup final against Dundalk.

Of the 22-man squad that day, only seven remain. And yet the journey from there to here has been seamless.