'He's a joy to watch': Stephen Bradley hails Shamrock Rovers star man Jack Byrne

Byrne was instrumental in the 2-0 victory over Rovers' title rivals at Brandywell and was heavily involved in Richie Towell's sensational opener before adding a second himself from distance on the stroke of half-time.

Likening his midfield maestro to 'a kid in the playground' running with the ball, Bradley said there's 'nothing better' than to watch him play at the top of his game.

"I thought Jack played at the level he's been playing at all year," said the Rovers boss. "I thought he was the best player on the pitch, he was outstanding!

"I think you see this year the Jack we saw two years ago before he left us for Cyprus. I think we're seeing him back at those levels. Last year he had his injury problems in preseason with his back and it was just trying to manage him whereas this year he's been free and you can see he's working extremely hard but when he's in that zone and gets the ball, he's a joy to watch.

"He's like a kid in the playground just running around with the ball," continued Bradley. "I thought he was fantastic for us tonight and from the sideline, for me as a manager, there's nothing better than seeing a player playing with that freedom and enjoyment. When he's like that, we're a different team."

Byrne spread the play wide to Trevor Clarke for the breakthrough strike on the half hour mark and when it was headed into the path of Towell, the former Celtic and Brighton man guided it sublimely into the far corner of the net on the volley.

For Bradley, it was an early contender for goal of the season.

"The first goal for me, I'm a little bit biased but I think it's the goal of the season already. It has come from Alan (Mannus) and no one has touched it and obviously Richie's finish. I thought everything about it was good, timing spacing movement, it was really, really good and don't forget you're against a good Derry side on a tough pitch so I thought that first goal was really high level."

Rovers were smarting from the 2-1 reversal in Tallaght earlier in the season and Bradley felt they were confident they could rectify that result.

The Rovers boss explained his team had quickly 'worked out' Derry's high press and used it to their advantage.

"We felt the game in Tallaght we were by far the better team but we lost the game so you don't get that recognition. "We felt if we mirrored that performance we could go very close to winning the game here tonight and we did that. I thought we were very, very good.

"We knew they would come and press us like they did because Sligo did it and they did and we've got to respect that and find a way through it and we did that very early, controlled midfield and controlled the game.

"In the first five minutes you could see we were trying to work out how they were pressing and what they were doing and where the space was but we worked it out very quickly and the players obviously exploited that.

"First half we played some really good football, we scored two and could've had more. And second half we managed the game really well. Other than the penalty I can't remember Derry having anything else really.

"So second half we managed the game well and showed our experience. We knew they would come and press us and try and get the crowd involved and we felt we could use that to our advantage and really hurt them if the first part was right.

"If they scored the ‘peno’ then it becomes a different scenario and the crowd become involved but we managed the second half really well. They didn't cause Alan any issues or Leon (Pohls) whenever he came in so we showed our know-how and experience.”

It was a case of settling scores for Rovers substitute Pohls who replaced Mannus when the former N. Ireland international went off with a dislocated finger in the second half. Pohls produced a howler in the President’s Cup Final on his last visit to Foyleside when allowing Michael Duffy’s goal squirm under his body.

His penalty save to deny Ben Doherty was the perfect birthday present for Pohls who also gets married on Tuesday – so a memorable week for the Rovers custodian.

“He's had to be patient Leon and he's shown improvement since he’s been in the last few years. Every year he's got better, physically and mentally. Technically we know he's really good. He made a mistake in the President's Cup here so that's nice for him to get that under his belt and put that to rest and he will grow from that and learn from that.”

In terms of head-to-heads in the league, that's one apiece for Derry and Rovers and despite leapfrogging the Foylesiders into second, Bradley's not getting carried away.

"There's a long way to go. Looking at league tables right now is silly and that will always be the case for us until it gets later into the season. We've been here before. We know what it takes and it's about three points, we move on and focus on Friday now which is Bohemians."