SHAMROCK ROVERS say they’re desperate to keep on-loan Celtic sharpshooter Johnny Kenny after the striker fired Shamrock Rovers to the cusp of the Conference League knockout stages.

The Dublin outfit recovered from missing out agonisingly by two points to Damien Duff‘s Shelbourne as they came from behind to dump Welsh outfit TNS 2-1 and move onto seven points from three games.

That’s a point more than Hearts have to their name and it leaves them in a great position, even if they now have to contend with the difficulty of playing their remaining Conference League matches in their OFF SEASON.

Trailing 1-0 to a goal by Jordan Williams, Kenny ran onto a clever Neil Farrugia flick to take a touch and fire a sweet high finish past TNS goalie Conor Roberts.

And a second from Dylan Billy Watts was enough to make it back-to-back wins for the Dubliners.

While the Conference League first phase wraps up at the end of December, it appears increasingly likely that Shamrock will become the first Irish team to make the knockout phase of a European competition and Bradley would love Kenny to be part f it.

Still only 21, in all the Irishman has bagged 15 goals for Shamrock and he would be a difficult man to replace but it remains to be seen if Brendan Rodgers has different ideas for him come January.

Bradley told RTE: “Look, we have a brilliant relationship with Celtic at all levels. Our feelings are quite clear on that.

“We have to respect that Celtic are the ones that Jonny are contracted to. They decided it and whatever ever they say goes.

“But I think everyone recognises that Shamrock Rovers have been good for Jonny and he’s been brilliant for us and I’d like to continue that.”

Kenny has previously said that he had only had minimal contact from his parent club and hat was hard to take.

He has said: “It’s a message here and there from Darren O’Dea [Celtic’s professional player pathway manager], that’s it, that’s all it is.

“It’s hard to take. Last year, [the lack of contact was] fair enough because I wasn’t really performing.

“But this year, I think I have performed well and I have gotten minimal contact from them.

“But look, I’ll just keep going game by game and see where it takes me. I’m always hopeful of getting an opportunity [at Celtic], but it might be limited. It would be a dream to play over there, but we’ll wait and see.”

As for last night’s goal, Kenny himself paid tribute to some extra work on the training ground with former Leeds and Republic of Ireland star Stephen McPhail, who just happens to be sporting director at Shamrock.

Kenny said: “It’s a different dressing room. We were thoroughly disappointed on Friday night, tonight is special, we go again in two weeks time.

“I think this year different to previous we have gone down in games but we’ve always fought back. We knew how good TNS well but we fought back and got the win.

“It was a brilliant disguised pass from Wattsy [Dylan Billy Watts] and Neil played it round the corner I’m happy to get on the end of it.

“It was a great touch from Neil and just tried to compose myself and finish. I worked on it yesterday with Stephen McPhail, the near post on my weak foot I prefer. Thankfully it went in and I will take it.

“It guarantees us nothing but it would be great if it did. We will just take it into the last three games and try to get the points there if we can.”

Bradley added: “It’s a great start. If you had said to us after three games that we’d be sitting here with seven points, we’d be happy… and we’re happy.

“The players responded brilliantly tonight after Friday’s disappointment, and I thought our overall performance deserved the win.”